


Lost

by Angelology



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Apocalypse AU pretty much, Multi, OT6, The Last of Us AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-09
Updated: 2014-09-09
Packaged: 2018-02-16 19:01:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 50,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2281083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angelology/pseuds/Angelology
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After an outbreak of the Cordyceps infection, most of the world is left in ruin. Most of the population have become the Infected, mindless creatures that roam the countries and cities, their only goal to spread the infection to the living. Those that aren't Infected are boarded off into quarantine zones, blocked off from the rest of the world and guarded heavily by the Military. There are those that rebel against the Military, a group called the Fireflys, and then there's the Hunters, savage and cruel and taking over quarantine zones.</p><p>Ray, Geoff, Michael, Ryan, Gavin and Jack are none of these. They are simply outcasts, roaming the new world by themselves in hopes of survival and finding their ways home. But then their paths begin to cross, and if the outbreak isn't bad enough already, they have to come to terms with their own feelings about each other and, of course, also try and stay alive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost

**Author's Note:**

> I lost my sanity around the 20k mark. Sorry about that. Currently unedited, and as usual the paragraphing never bloody works properly but I don't care at this point.

Ray is a name whispered among the abandoned streets, a name that is echoed against the abandoned buildings and hushed between people free of the government control, those who lingered on the outside of the safe zones.

'Ray of darkness,' some called him, as some sort of twisted joke for the saying 'Ray of sunshine.' Stories said he was partially infected, but not wholly, and the cordyceps infection had messed with his mind, saying he was so full of hatred for being stuck in limbo that he killed both Infected and humans as some sort of revengeful act. Others said he was in the military, others say Firefly, some even said hunter gone rogue.

Honestly, they were all just such bullshit it made Ray laugh.

He was a perfect marksman, a silent instant killer perched on a rooftop with his rifle, unable to be seen. However, it was really only ever the Infected he meant to shoot.... But, well, if someone got in his way, then that was truly unfortunate for them.

However, he was solo, all alone against hundreds of hunters, infected and all sorts of other dangers. All he wanted to do was find his way back to New York as he had heard there was still a way to get back, even though all of America was basically locked down and everyone put into quarantine zones.  
He had been travelling around to the other states and had ended up in Austin, unfortunately being stuck in a quarantine zone for almost a month before he was able to find a way to sneak out by himself.

Still, being alone was becoming unideal after two months. He knew he had really only scratched the surface of the new world- hell, he had rarely ever seen any Clickers, and he sure as hell did not ever want to run into any Bloaters. It would be nice, at least, for someone to have his back in case he did ever run into either of those.

Of course, though, he was only thinking about this now because he was facing up to twenty hunters all alone if he wanted to get through the abandoned checkpoint.

He sighed, slinging the rifle on his back and re-adjusting it to fit around his backpack that contained very little: only some spare bits of canned food that he managed to find a while ago in a hunter’s stash, a hopefully safe-to-drink bottle of water, his old DS that had run out of charge a very long time ago, a pistol and a few rounds of ammunition.

It definitely wasn’t enough to face twenty hunters, but he decided he may as well take a look and see if he could somehow get around the place without being seen. He searched around for a climbing spot that would allow him to get a higher view spot, his most favourite spot if any action went down. He found a conveniently placed car just under a tree and jumped from the car to the lowest branch, slowly making his way up and being careful of any sudden patrols.

He got lucky, being able to climb as high as he could. He considered jumping from the branch to the window beside him, but decided against it as he wasn’t sure if the hunters below would be able to see through the window and if any were in the building.

So he sat on a branch and surveyed the surroundings, carefully concealed by the thick leaves on the tree. He snacked on a bit of canned peach, finally caving in to his growling stomach. He knew if he had any hope of getting past them it would have to be at night time, where he could easily hide in the shadows and escape the patrols he saw going around.

Ray could see the pile of weapons from his spot in the tree, a chill going down his spine when he thought of just how they could gather so many weapons. He had no doubt the bodies were close- they’d either be a source of food for those truly desperate or their corpses were burned in a pile.

Night came slowly. He had a short nap on a secure piece of branch, the fatigue from all his walking catching up to him in an instant and forcing his eyes to close. When he awoke, it was only dusk and he watched the patrols carefully for the next few hours, making note of all their routes and methods for checking and trying to find any blind spots he could hide in.

He was in luck. He noticed there was a section they refused to go near, and Ray immediately assumed that was were a burning pile of corpses were. Usually, he noticed, most patrols always stayed away as the smell was so disgustingly overwhelming it was almost an instant vomit inducer.

Unfortunately, though, that was the only place he could really find. He cautiously made his way down the tree, securing his rifle on his back and sneaking along the fence line, so far being able to avoid any patrol.

He followed the thick fence line, annoyed at having to cross over it again as the only way down from the tree was on the other side of the fence. He peered through the wooden panels until he finally stopped right where he wanted to be.

The smell was, unsurprisingly, absolutely fucking disgusting. He scrunched his nose, covering his nose with his shirt as best as he could before beginning his slow climb over the fence. Once he made it onto the other side, he was careful to quickly cover behind the burned pile of corpses just in case some patrol decided to be brave and check in the area.

He sat there for as long as he dared, checking his thankfully still-working watch and watching as the time hit midnight. Only then did he move, crouching as he moved forward and sticking to the shadows as he quickly moved. He hoped these guys were like most of the others he had run into- breaking down into a skeleton crew in the early hours of the morning. Twenty wasn’t the biggest number of hunters he had faced alone, but they definitely had the biggest stash of weapons and honestly Ray definitely did not want to go up against them.

Unfortunately he couldn’t avoid the confrontation. He had been doing well, managing to get about halfway into the area without any issues, however he had failed to really plan out his route and ended up going down a side path that was blocked off by a building.

Cursing his lack of planning, he looked behind him to notice a flashlight shining dangerously close to the area. He cursed beneath his breath, looking around for a quick escape and deciding his best bet was either to subdue the guy with stealth or climb the building.

Climbing really wasn’t a good idea, though, as there was a serious lack of foot and hand placements for him to scale up on.

He swiftly shrugged the rifle and backpack off his back and hunted through the backpack to find the small melee knife at the bottom. He put the backpack and rifle back on and followed the brick wall of the building next to him to get back to the entrance of the side path. He hid behind there, holding his breath as he heard the approaching footsteps, waiting until the guy was practically next to him before quickly taking him down with a swift stab through the neck.

Although, just his luck, he had failed to realize there was another guy pretty much right behind the hunter now dead at his feet. He looked up in panic as the torchlight came around the corner, and he managed to quickly take down that guy as well.

Unfortunately, the guy had let out a warning shot. His aim was horrible and had missed Ray by nearly a whole meter, it still wakened up pretty much the other eighteen hunters, who he could hear shouting orders at one another and grabbing the weapons.

He made a split-second decision, breaking down the pathetically locked door of the building and running inside, making his way up the stairs in an attempt to hopefully get the higher ground which he prefered.

He managed to just find a room with a window before the first shot was fired. It conveniently shattered the window which he was looking out of, however the raining glass wasn’t really all that appreciated, even though he was protected from most of it with his hoodie and jeans (which definitely sometimes got ridiculously hot and uncomfortable but they did manage to protect his skin so he was forced to bear with them).

Looking out beyond the scope of the rifle, he noticed at least ten guys were in one group. He didn’t like not knowing where the other approximate ten were. There wasn’t much he could do about that though, his attention was demanded onto the group just a few meters below him.

Within seconds, two of the hunters were down with instant deaths from a shot to the head.  
However, the group below was just as quick to return fire and he had to duck from the window to dodge the swarm of bullets raining above him. In a desperate attempt for some quicker way to get rid of the mob below, he hunted around in his backpack for an explosive despite not remembering feeling one earlier when he hunted through his backpack before for the knife.

A whispered “fuck” passed his lips as he was unable to find any desired explosive, however despite not having one himself, it seemed someone else did if the huge boom! was anything to go by.

At the silence of the gunfire, Ray made a hesitant peek out the broken window. There was no remains left of the mob below except the splattered body parts that were spread around the street. He didn’t have time to thank the heaven above for the miracle, only hoping the guy didn’t plan to blow him up as well. He made his way quickly down the building, knowing it wouldn’t be a good idea to hang around just in case the guy did have a second explosive handy just for him.  
The second group of the other ten or so were still out in the area and Ray hadn't heard another explosion, meaning the other guy hadn't blown them up yet. He stepped out of the door once confirming he was, for the time being, safe from the mob and made his way down to where he wanted to go, which was out of the damn area.

He just wished there was no infected on the other side.  
Ray was able to somehow get to the other end of the area without running into the second group and wondered if the other guy had taken them all out silently- he sure as hell hoped that was the case.

He managed to get past the exit of the quarantine zone, rifle reloaded and ready just in case any Infected did come out to say hello.  
What greeted the end of his rifle when he turned to his right, however, was not an Infected at all. It was a guy with a pistol pointed directly right back at him and a bandana covering the bottom of his face with the design of the jaw and teeth of a skull.

It took him only a few second to realize just who exactly it was. Ryan Haywood, a rumoured absolute madman that was usually a story told right after Ray's own that strikes even more fear around the campsite.

“Oh, fuck me.” Ray mumbled, realising he was now probably in a much worse situation than he was about five minutes ago.

Ryan Haywood was an effective killer, his explosives highly regarded in the most dangerous manner and Ray cursed himself for not realising it earlier. There was absolutely no way a single explosion could take out ten rather spread out guys in one hit, unless of course, they were Ryan's, whose were known to spread to a much wider radius than any other explosive known.

Ryan, however, seemed just about as cautious as Ray himself and Ray had to wonder if the guy thought the same about him. He put down the gun slowly, knowing that Ryan probably sort of had some explosive ready to explode the same second Ray pulled the trigger.  
Hesitantly, Ryan lowered the gun as well but kept a careful eye on Ray.

“So, you’re, uh, Ryan The Skeleton Guy, right?” Ray’s voice was quiet, still very aware the other group of hunters could be out there just a few meters from the pair of them. Ryan tilted his head slightly, either in amusement or confusion. They didn’t really have a good name to call Ryan around the campfires quite like Ray’s. Ryan The Skeleton Guy was honestly the best that seemed to come up.

“And you’re the ‘Ray of Darkness’ with a one hundred percent kill shot and deadly accuracy, right?” Ryan’s voice was a lot deeper than Ray could have ever expected and his brain did a little stutter as he heard the words.

Ray nodded, his grip tightening on the lowered rifle. Ryan did the same to his own weapon, and Ray studied his body a little closer in the dark light and noticed the backpack that probably held all of Ryan’s explosives.

“So, uh, I don’t think either of us is really willing to shoot the other. I mean, you probably have all your exploding shit ready to go boom and I could possibly have some other sort of trap ready.”  
That was honestly the biggest bullshit that had come out of Ray’s mouth. He knew how to shoot and kill, not to wire shit up cleverly for a trap.

Ryan nodded as an indication to go on and Ray licked his dry lips, trying to form the next words. There were very little times where Ray got nervous- sure, he got worried for any sort of battle, however being nervous was something he rarely ever experienced any more, so having to experience the emotion in front of just one guy put him on edge.

“I’m just quite possibly suggesting here we could possibly, ah, y’know, get the fuck out of each other’s way if you go, say that way, and I’ll go completely in the other direction. Okay great, now that that’s all sorted I’m getting the fuck out of here _goodbye_.” Ray took a few steps backwards, keeping a careful glance on Ryan’s pistol in case he decided at the last second to change his mind. Thankfully, he seemed to agree with the plan and begun to back up as well, also keeping a careful eye on Ray’s own rifle.

Eventually, their visions of each other were broken apart and Ray breathed a sigh of relief, glad that he was at least able to avoid that confrontation.

He began walking forward again, checking his bullets and keeping a very wary eye on the scenery around him with his dim torch just in case any Infected decided to show up to the party a little later or if Haywood changed his mind after all.

Thankfully, nothing seemed to come out at him, and by the time it was morning Ray was certain that he and Haywood would never cross paths again.

* * *

(GEOFF)

Ray and Ryan weren’t the only names tossed around at campfires. Geoff Ramsey was another deadly shot, his name just as feared as the other two. He, like the other two, had many stories that floated around. One claimed he had taken down a Bloater single-handedly (absolute bullshit, those fuckers were absolutely huge and honestly he was pretty sure it was damn near impossible to kill them all by yourself no matter who you are), another claimed he had taken down a whole quarantine zone of police all by himself (only half true, he had some help there) and another claimed he had managed to take down a whole squad of Fireflys simply because he could (which was completely true, however it was only because they had fired first.)

So for him to be stuck inside a lingerie store because the entrance he had used had crumbled behind him was definitely one of the most embarrassing things that had happened to him and he could only think of how much this would ruin his reputation if anyone managed to find him and leave somehow alive to spread the story.

The door to the entrance of the store had been locked with chains and he turned his torch on, thankfully seeing no spores in the air that indicated any Infected. If he was lucky, the whole mall could be Infected-free and he could maybe manage to get out of the place without any issues.

He hunted around and found a bottle of water in the small fridge that had long since stopped working, but the water was probably as good as he was ever going to get. He took a sip, his mouth filling with the strangest sensation as the liquid made its way down his throat. He never realised just how parched he was until he took a drink, but forced himself to stash the rest of the bottle away for later.

Looking around, there really wasn’t else much to the store. His cheeks still flushed red when he looked at the racks of bras and then reminded himself that he was a gay man, damnit, he had no interest in bras.

He checked his inventory, taking out his gun, El Diablo, and getting a molotov and lighter ready at his side.

There was no other way out except to break through the window, which was thankfully not boarded up. The only issue was that windows were loud as fuck when smashed and he knew he would only have seconds to prepare for anything coming at him. Just because spores weren’t around didn’t mean that Hunters or Infected on the higher floors weren’t hanging around.

It was the only option he had though, so he looked around for something to break the window with. He found a piece of rubble from the now collapsed entry and threw it harshly at the window, wincing as the glass shattered. He quickly climbed out, getting ready to shoot a few bullets at any movement on the upper floors.

He listened carefully for any movement, slowly making his way around the first floor. No stores caught his interest, but he knew there was definitely something worth hanging around for in the mall, especially if it was abandoned. Geoff put away the molotov, satisfied it wouldn’t be needed for now.

Turns out, it wasn’t abandoned. The noise was quiet and Geoff would never have heard it if he wasn’t so carefully listening. There was a small clatter of something like tin on the floor just above his and he frowned a little, the hope that the place could be abandoned quickly shattered.  
He listened out for anything more, but it seemed the thing that had knocked it over wasn’t too keen on moving again. It felt like the building was holding its breath around him, waiting in anticipation for a sort of confrontation.

He made his way up the stairs, almost certain that there was a very small amount of danger that he could easily take out. He knew exactly where the noise had come from- a small candy store that was pretty well concealed in the dark mall.

He kept a careful glance on the entrance of the store, trying to catch any movement. He was almost sure it was a human or Hunter- if it was an Infected, it would’ve come running at the sound of the window shattering.

Humans were so much easier to deal with than the Infected, so Geoff was grateful for it. Making his way slowly closer to the store, he noticed the thin wire running along the bottom of the doorframe.

If he was any less experienced with the wired explosives, he knew he would’ve noticed the wiring way too late and would've been blown to pieces before he even knew it.  
He could only hope their was just the one person and hopefully not a whole pack ready to ambush him.

He slowly walked closer to the store and inhaled, holding his breath as he fired the first shot onto the explosive on the side of the doorframe.

The explosion was so loud Geoff was pretty sure that the Infected from a kilometre away could've probably heard it, meaning if there were any in close distance they would surely be making their way down to the noise as fast as they could, meaning Geoff only had minutes to inspect the person inside if any Infected were around.

He reloaded his gun as he moved through the door, keeping his footsteps as quiet as he could. The candy had mostly been looted, but Geoff could see some jars still full of some colourful stuff. He made a move to grab one of the candy bars, but stopped and turned quickly and crouched behind the shelf when he felt a stare directed at him.

He waited in silence, not daring to move a single muscle. He heard a small rustle and he immediately dodged behind to the other side of the shelf, eyes widening when he heard a whistling sound slice the silence and land with a clatter right next to him, and Geoff knew if he had been even a second slower to move his neck would've been pierced cleanly through with the arrow.

He knew this person was now a lot more dangerous than he originally thought. Not many ever went for the bow and arrow weapon, and if they ever did Geoff found out that person was amazingly good at stealth.

But then Geoff thought back to the clutter he had heard earlier than lead him to the store and he really wondered if that theory was right.

He moved slowly around the shelf, careful of the shattered glass from the jars on the floor. The other person really wasn’t as careful, the crunching noise shattering the silence and making it very easy for Geoff to find the person. They were just around on the other side of the shelf Geoff was now circling, presumedly trying to find Geoff as well, seeing as they hadn’t made a go for the exit.

That’s when Geoff heard it- the slight chittering of the Infected and he had to refrain from letting out a curse in frustration. He was sure the other heard it as well, their footsteps ceasing instantly and Geoff could’ve sworn he heard the person sigh.

Geoff wasn’t sure how to go about it, really. He could use the person for some extra help just in case there were a few more Infected than he could handle, however the person could also kill him if he extended a hand to them.

Thankfully, the other guy seemed just about as desperate and seemed to go with the former. They spoke quietly, and Geoff couldn’t help but be stunned at the British accent. He hadn’t heard one in what seemed like years.

“So, I guess we’ve just got ourselves into a right pickle here. I, uh, would put the bow down in a sign of surrendering or something but I don’t really want to do that when it seems like that Infected mob is coming up from down in the basement.”

The guy stood up and Geoff was only just able to see his silhouette in the darkness. Geoff made a move to stand as well, his gun still prepared to shoot but he lowered it hesitantly once he realised the other guy had his hands in the air, one hand holding the bow and the other the arrow.

Geoff watched carefully as the guy made his way slowly around to Geoff, each of them both keeping careful eyes on each other. Geoff could see the kid’s features a little better in the very dim light and Geoff couldn’t help but notice just how big the kid’s nose was as it seemed to be outlined by the light.

Geoff nodded at the kid, his gun raising to the entrance.

“You blew up my bomb, I see, which you could’ve really just stepped over or something. It was more for the dumb Infected who don’t know how to step over things, so thanks for that.”  
Geoff grit his teeth, irritation bubbling in his chest. It wasn’t like he wanted to blow the thing up, it wasn’t like he wanted to be in the damn shopping mall or land in the lingerie store. It had happened all because of those stupid Hunters that were chasing his ass through half the fucking city. He just let out a warning of “shut the fuck up,” before moving closer to the door to peer outside, seeing the first Infected make its way up the stairs.

Of course, of course it just had to be a fucking Clicker of all things. He was hoping for maybe just some Runners, something easy and stupid. But no, of course the world just really wanted to fuck Geoff Ramsey over today because nope, there wasn’t even just the one fucking Clicker, there was another three trailing after that first one.

This time, he allowed the “fuck” to pass his lips and the other guy let out some other word Geoff wasn’t sure he heard right.

The guy next to him dropped the bow and quickly went through his bag and growled in frustration when he didn’t seem to find what he was looking for. He turned to Geoff, staring at the backpack on his back.

“You got any explosives?” The guy asked, already making a move to grab Geoff’s bag.  
Geoff glared at the kid, who got the idea and took a step back away from Geoff as he quickly shouldered his bag off and looked for the molotov he had stored away.

The guy grinned when he saw the flammable bottle, making a gesture to himself then to outside that Geoff had absolutely no idea what it meant, so he just nodded and watched as the kid crouched and slowly made his way outside, grabbing an empty jar on his way out.

Immediately, Geoff knew what the guy was doing and got the lighter out in preparation for lighting the molotov in his hand. The guy threw the jar onto the other side of the floor and Geoff made his way quickly outside, his footsteps covered by the glass shattering and effectively drawing the Clickers attention.

The Clickers crowded around the source of noise and Geoff quickly lit the molotov alight, throwing it right into the middle of them all and grinning as they set just as easily alight.  
Unfortunately, Geoff got his wish for the Runners at the exact wrong time and Geoff really wondered if the Universe was really just out to fuck with him.

They came, true to their name, running up the stairs as the screams of the Clickers filled the mall as they burned to crisps.

Geoff instantly had his gun out, shooting the first two runners that came through straight through the head. Another three were taken out almost instantly by the guy next to him. There was another ten coming through that door, however, according to the guy who shouted it out somewhere in between the gunfire. Geoff knew he didn’t have even five bullets left and the guy was down to his two last arrows unless he made a bold move to go and get them from the fallen bodies of the Runners.

Geoff could tell the kid next to him was aware of their situation as he came down to his final arrow, Geoff noticing that he had a careful eye on the arrows impaled in the fallen Runners. Geoff knew it’d be suicide to try and attempt it- there was no way he could shoot the remaining ones in time and even if the guy managed to grab the arrow it wouldn’t be enough time to kill the Infected.

He made a quick choice, firing off one more bullet before running over the the fallen pieces of glass from the shattered jar and praying that there was a chunk of glass big enough to use as a shiv.  
Turning, he saw the kid had made the move to grab the fallen arrow and he cursed, grabbing the closest piece and sprinting as the Infected quickly made its way over to the kid. It had just grabbed him and the kid had whirled around in shock and let out some sort of weird shriek before Geoff stabbed the shiv through the Infected’s neck, effectively killing it.

There was still another two, but the guy managed to quickly take down one and Geoff grabbed another fallen arrow, killing the final one with the same method he had used with the shiv.  
Panting slightly, he bent over and put his hands on his knees and let out a grumble of “I’m too old for this shit.”

The other guy laughed, hand extending in his vision and Geoff looked up to see the kid smiling at him. His face was splashed with blood, probably from the shiv attack Geoff had used to save the kid’s life.

“I’m Gavin,” The kid introduced himself as, “and you saved my ass, so thanks.”

Geoff nodded, accepting the hand and shaking it. “I’m Geoff, and you bet your dick I did.”

“So, uh, why are you here, Geoff?” Gavin started to walk around and picked up the fallen arrows, shoving them into his backpack and scowling when he saw a couple of broken ones.

“Got chased by these fucking Hunters across the city and I, uh, came in through the lingerie store. The entrance collapsed and here I am.” Geoff shrugged, Gavin sending him a weird glance before shrugging himself.

“So, we’re not going to kill each other, right?” Gavin asked, a little nervously. Geoff grinned, shaking his head.

“I don’t really want to go up against Legolas, even though you did nearly pierce my neck with that first arrow.” Geoff teased and Gavin’s mouth dropped, seemingly stuttering over his next words.

“I swear if I knew you would save my life I wouldn’t have, promise!” Gavin argued and Geoff just laughed, the shakiness in his hands returning as they usually did after such an adrenaline rush.  
They fell into silence after that, both of them making their way back to the candy store without a word. Finally, Geoff decided to speak up.

“You knew about the Infected down there, you knew exactly how many there were.” Geoff took in the way Gavin stiffened slightly, his hands slackening off the candy jar he was inspecting on the shelf.

“I went down there, there’s a certain path that you can go down without being detected by them. You can see through a hole in the wall just how many there were. I just… forgot there were also Runners when we killed the Clickers, I was more wrapped up in trying to kill them I guess and forgot about the Runners until they came up. It’s a miracle they didn’t hear that entrance collapsing, but I’m pretty sure the basement is sealed well from most sounds. The explosion was just bloody loud and probably shattered a few glass windows or something, no way could they not have heard it.” Gavin answered, opening the jar and taking a candy and offering one to Geoff who took it gladly.

“So how did you get here, Gav?” Geoff asked, face scrunching up slightly at the sweet taste of the candy. He hadn’t had such a treat in a long time, it was easy to forget the simple pleasures in life.

“I, uh, came from England with my friend Dan. I got separated from Dan a long time ago. I-I’m not sure if he’s alive or whatever, but we got separated because of the Hunters that tried to kill us. We got split up and I ended up here, and I recon they were the same bastards that tried killing you.” Gavin explained, his voice a lot quieter and sadder and Geoff felt sorry for the kid- he was only just starting out on all the fun things in life and was probably just in America to travel, and now here he was, separated from his only friend in an alien country in an apocalyptic world.

It seemed the Universe liked to fuck up everyone else’s days as well.

Geoff could tell his guard was lowering and he began to see Gavin as less of a possible threat and more like a poor kid that was really just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He took a proper look at Gavin and noticed just how skinny he was and frowned, wondering if he saw under the shirt if he would be able to see his ribs. By the way the shirt was already hanging off him, Geoff wouldn’t be surprised if he could.

Gavin offered Geoff a few jars of candy in thanks for saving his life and Geoff took them without much arguing, even if he knew the kid could probably use any sort of food he could grab. Geoff thanked him one last time before going to move out the store, only to be followed by Gavin.

Geoff turned, taking another look at Gavin and frowned. “You’re not coming with me.” Geoff declared.

Gavin’s face fell and he immediately argued back, “Why not? We make a bloody good team back there! G&G, y’know? I want to get out of here anyway.”

Geoff shook his head, “I’ve been doing these months alone, Gav, I don’t need company now, or a liability.”

“I’m not a liability and you know it! We worked great back there, you wouldn’t have survived without me and I wouldn’t of without you… Actually no, I would’ve if you never made your way into here. But you did, and now I’m following you out.”

Geoff glared, “I work better solo, kid, so how about you just stay behind like a good little puppy?”  
Gavin’s glare matched Geoff’s as he took a confident step forward, “I’m not a damn dog, you mong! I’m following you, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Geoff kept his glare up as his mind worked through all the pathways that could come from this. Gavin was definitely a good shot, however when he ran out of arrows he was an immediate liability. Geoff worked better solo, but then again he had really never worked with anyone else.

He sighed, his glare dropping and Gavin’s face visibly cheering up as he let out a victory ‘whoop!’

Geoff rolled his eyes, turning back around and walking forward, stopping himself from grinning when Gavin skipped up beside him.

That’s when Geoff stopped, suddenly aware he had no idea where he was going.

“So, how the fuck do we get out of here?” Geoff asked, turning to Gavin who immediately donned a sheepish expression.

“I’m not sure, I also used the lingerie store entrance.” Gavin looked in the direction of the store and just laughed. “Oh well, guess it’s adventuring time.”

Geoff sighed and wondered if he really knew what he was getting himself into by teaming up with Gavin.

* * *

(MICHAEL)

Michael really wasn't sure how he ended up tied to the ceiling by his wrists in chains. As far as he could remember, he was just checking out a very broken down hotel for any food or water as his body was seriously about to collapse from exhaustion.

He had made it into the lobby, but that's when his memory just cut off, refusing to allow him to remember what happened after that.

He growled in frustration, his stomach joining in on the growling and he mentally told it to shut the fuck up before whoever chained him up came back.

By the way the room smelled of rotting flesh, Michael had a pretty good idea of what would happen to him if the people returned, so he could only hope that they'd leave him alone as he worked his way out of the metal chains.

The assholes had taken his shotgun and backpack and it was only another reason that his temper flared up. He was fucking pissed. All he wanted was to look in the hotel, not to be chained up and killed and possibly eaten.

At least he had gotten some sleep, so some traces of exhaustion vanished, but it only made his hunger and thirst more prominent.

He was left hanging there for a very long time, his legs beginning to shake with absolute exhaustion and he knew if they let him down he wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight as his legs would collapse under his own weight.

He knew he was a dead man the second someone walked in and he resigned himself to his seemingly inevitable fate.

And then he heard the muffled explosion.

At first he thought it was his mind just going delirious (which it sometimes did when he was in such a state of exhaustion) and tricking himself into the futile state of hope. But he allowed the hope to spread once he heard the return of gunfire.

Maybe, just maybe, he could get out if the person fighting them found him. Or the guy could kill him, but either way he was pretty sure he was a dead man anyway, so it was worth a shot.

Another explosion rang out and Michael tried one last time to get free of the chains, but with no success. Eventually, the gunfire stopped and Michael waited in silence for a few seconds before the very loud bang came from directly outside the door.

Michael knew that sound, he himself had been on the end of that treatment and had been the one giving the treatment. It was someone being slammed against the wall of the building he was chained up in and he could only hope the guy fighting back was the one dealing the treatment.

He held his breath in anticipation, waiting until there were any more slams before he decided why the fuck not and started yelling.

He yelled for about a minute for help before the door was opened and the guy standing there looked in shock at Michael before quickly making his way over and inspecting the chains.

The man's face was covered in blood and Michael could see the familiar signs of anger in his features. It was an emotion he definitely knew well. The tightness in the shoulders, the pursing of the lips and grinding of teeth, the way the eyes narrowed at any particular detail that would fuel the anger.

The blood had made its way into a fair bit of the man’s beard, which Michael didn’t even realise he was staring at until the man moved away and frowned.

“I can’t get you down with brute force, but I’m sure there’s something around to cut those chains. How else would they have gotten the bodies down?” The man was mostly speaking to himself and Michael was surprised at the deep voice, but found it suited the man quite well.

As the man looked around for something to cut the chains with, Michael tried his best to think of what to say to the guy. A simple thank you would do fine, sure, but Michael was never really one for the simple things in life.

“So, who are you?” Michael asked, his voice raspy from the yelling he had done before. Fuck, he needed a drink of water.

The other man turned and smiled at Michael and he couldn’t help but marvel at how someone who had just taken down a whole league of Hunters had such a kind smile. “I’m Jack, I began to notice some people missing around our area. So I followed someone who went walking and these bastards managed to corner them and dragged them here. I jumped them before they did anything to her and it started off that huge fight you probably just heard.” The man answered, finally finding the bolt cutters that could cut through the chains.

Michael mulled it over before deciding to answer the question Jack never asked. “I’m Michael, by the way. Thanks for saving my ass.”  
Jack smiled again at him and fucking damnit he needed to stop doing that.

After about a minute or so of working out the best angle to cut the chains, Michael was finally released from them and he winced as all the blood rushed back into his arms and wrists, rubbing at them in an attempt to get some of the stiffness out.

“How’d you end up here, Michael? You got an accent, so you’re not from around.” Jack asked, looking around for anything else he could salvage. Michael began looking for his shotgun and bag.

“Came down here with a friend for this job or whatever, and then the whole world just flipped to shit overnight and I got stuck here. I’m glad about that, though, because I reckon your Hunters are still probably like ten times as nicer than the New Jersey ones.” Michael answered, scowling when he realised his bag wasn’t in the room. “We gotta find my bag and shotgun, did you see them by any chance?”

Jack looked at him in surprise before shaking his head. “No, but I’ll help I guess.”

They walked out, Michael’s feet sore already, probably because of how long he was forced to stand on his feet. Still, it fucking sucked and hurt like a bitch with every step.  
Michael could see the carnage around him and he winced at the pure show of brutality and he wondered if he’d be able to win in a fight against the guy now beside him.

Still, even with the destruction around them, Michael’s guard was already a lot lower than what it was with anyone else. He wondered if that had something to do with the fatigue and exhaustion and he barely realised that he was following Jack who had seemed to purposely lead him to the kitchen of some small shop.

Jack turned and gave Michael a pointed look, folding his arms and gesturing with his head for Michael to look around. Michael smiled, really too tired to speak anymore. There wasn’t much, but it was enough to last Michael for about a week or more if he was careful. A strip of some sort of dried fruit, two different cans of beans and some other unidentifiable thing he didn’t bother taking.

He offered Jack a can, but he shook his head. Michael glared a little, but still Jack refused. Michael sighed and took a little nibble of the strip of dried fruit before stuffing it in his hand and making sure he had no more.  
Without realising, Michael had stepped behind Jack and was allowing him to lead. They walked around, looking up and down buildings before eventually they went back to the warehouse and Jack and Michael noticed the lockers.

The lockers were empty, however, but they managed to figure out that behind the lockers were a few too many cracks in the wall and so they moved it, discovering a small sort of tunnel. Michael looked down it, but it was way too small for himself just to fit. He frowned, reaching his arm in and then smiling when he felt his hands grasp the familiar fabric of his bag.

Why the fuck his bag was down a tunnel and hidden away was a mystery, but at least he got it back. The little stuff inside was gone, like his torch which wasn’t much of a loss but still he couldn’t find his shotgun, but at least he now had something to put the cans of food in.

Jack then stopped suddenly when they began walking, Michael nearly walking right into the back of him.

“What?” Michael hissed, his voice quiet by the sudden fear that Jack had stopped because he had seen danger.

Then the man turned and grinned and Michael didn’t even have enough time to ask “what the fuck” before Jack was launching into an explanation.

“I think I saw it, actually. One of the first guys I took out- I thought the shotgun was a little weird with all these other guys who only had pistols and military weaponry. We just gotta find his body.”

Michael followed in something close to excitement, his grin widening when he saw his beloved shotgun on one of the guys who was underneath two other bodies. Michael grabbed it, glad to see only one shot had been fired and he shoved it in his backpack.

Michael realised he had everything he wanted, but the excitement of that was being replaced with something close to… what was that exactly? Longing? Michael shook his head. Even though he did long to no longer be lonely and by himself, he knew it wasn’t a very polite thing to ask someone to hang around with them.

So, he found himself immediately accepting the offer when Jack had asked if Michael had wanted to come back to his little ‘community’.

On the way there, which was almost an hour walk, Michael and Jack talked. They talked a lot. About video games, old ones and new ones they’d never see released. They talked about anything to everything and Michael found himself instantly at ease with the guy, smiling more than he could remember, which wasn’t really much because Michael was pretty sure his memory was acting up after the kidnapping scenario.

When they got there, a small little town fenced off well with fences and the walls of buildings, Michael knew something was wrong.

Jack had stopped suddenly again, but Michael knew this time it really was in the presence of danger. He stepped up next to Jack, looking at him inquisitively who looked back at him with something like horror.

Instantly, Michael and Jack were sprinting down the street, Jack getting them past the fence and running through the town. Jack had talked about their community- home to about ten families, about twelve small children and a few pets. He promised Michael someone would always be there- they never left the area unoccupied at any given time and they always had their defences going.

However, there was no one there. Jack and Michael ran around the town, checking the sides of buildings and yelling out. But there was no response, and eventually Jack stopped, the shock and disbelief seemingly catching up and hitting him all at once.

Michael put his hand on Jack’s shoulder in a sign of comfort as the man put a hand to his mouth and began to breathe unevenly. They waited like that for about a minute before Jack seemed to straighten up, his hand moving from his mouth and looking at Michael with determination.

“We’re going to find them. We need to find them. But right now, it’s only you and me and you’re no good to me sleep deprived and exhausted as you are right now. Go take a rest in one of the houses, I’ll stay on lookout but I doubt anyone that came through here will be coming back again if they think they got everyone.” Jack told him and Michael was about to argue before realising that yeah, maybe he was just a little tired and a nap did sound like a good idea right now.

Michael made his way up a building, Jack slowly following behind him and offering no help with finding a room, however Michael didn't hold it against him. He knew the poor guy was in shock and disbelief at suddenly losing all of his community, possibly even family. He'd ask Jack after he'd woken up about that.

After checking about the fifth room on the second floor, he finally found a room with a mattress. It was lying to the far side of the room, some pillows thrown about and some other random objects like some old pair of sneakers and a water damaged book.

He grabbed a pillow from the floor and laid down on it on the mattress, setting his bag and shotgun to the side of the mattress, the comfort of it instantly relaxing his muscles and seeming to send him quicker into his sleep.

When he woke, his body was flinging him upright into a sitting position and he only just managed to stop the scream escaping his lips from a quick hand to block his mouth. His heart raced, and he tried to think through the sudden panic. Was it a nightmare? Did he wake through a nightmare? He tried to remember any details, but like most of his dreams he was unable to.

His heart slowed down considerably and he eventually rolled off the mattress and onto the floor, groaning as he slowly got up. His hands were trembling slightly and he forced them to stop before he stood fully upright. He grabbed his backpack beside the mattress.

Taking a few deep breaths and calming himself, he stepped out of the room carefully and into the hall. Now that he was rested, he was a lot more wary and a few more thoughts began to cross his mind. What if Jack really wasn’t living with a community? What if he killed them all? What if he was going to kill Michael?

Reasonably, he knew, that Jack could have killed him about ten opportunities ago. But still, he couldn’t help but be cautious. His fingers itched for the shotgun in his backpack, but he subdued the urge. If Jack really was there to help him, then he knew he probably would no longer if Michael had a gun pointed at his head. Besides, he knew plenty of other ways to defend himself.

Jack was upstairs. Michael found this out after going through every single door there was on the second and first floor, and god fucking christ there was a lot of doors, and then decided to head upstairs. There were two more stories above, so he decided to try his luck and went straight for the fourth floor. He tried remembering the layout of the small town and tried to think of where the best lookout point would be, and just prayed it wasn’t in another building. He opened a door he assumed that lead to a room that had a window facing the street, and inside he found Jack.

The poor guy looked terrible. He was sitting on a broken office chair, the back of it having fallen off and making the chair look more like a stool, and hunched over as he looked out the window. To be a bit more polite, Michael knocked on the door and Jack whirled, the tension seeming to lift a little when he caught sight of Michael.

“You look better,” Jack commented, and Michael smiled a little in response. He was glad that the man hadn’t tried to kill him, at least.  
“You don’t,” Michael said in response and Jack sighed a little. He gestured Michael over to look out the window and pointed to a direction. Michael only saw the building, but Jack showed him he was pointing just a little beyond that, at the bushland that was surrounding that side of the town.

“We made a plan, if we ever got attacked the survivors would make their way out into that bushland. Peter, one of the guys, said it lead to bigger cities with more supplies and we could easily lose the attackers. If they went anywhere, they went there. However, I can’t find any bodies around so I’m not sure if they even got attacked.” Jack told him and Michael frowned a little. When they were walking to the town, he had seen the beginning of the bushland and knew it could be a dangerous place to go into as many Hunters like to hide out there and conceal themselves in the bushland.

Jack stood from the chair, some joints cracking as he stretched. He lead Michael down to the street and into another building, where there were some supplies that had been left behind. Jack frowned when he saw them, Michael figuring that it probably ruled out the option of them travelling into the bushlands willingly or they would’ve grabbed a lot more supplies.

They grabbed some tinned food and Michael satisfied his hungry stomach by eating some canned pears. He would’ve much rathered a bar of chocolate or something, but then decided the pears were probably more suitable for breakfast, considering it was very early in the morning. He knew he had fallen asleep some time late in the afternoon, and he had apparently slept through all of the night until morning. He wondered if Jack had slept at all.

There was a few bottles of water and Michael stuffed as many as he could into his bag. His bag was now a lot more heavier and he knew he would probably suffer in agility because of it in case a fight did arise, but that was fine by him if he had a good meal. He was forced to take out his shotgun to fit in some more food, but he figured it was probably better to carry it and be ready to use it in an instant in the bushland.

They set off when the heat began to really creep into the morning, hoping that any attackers would stay more in hiding in the broad daylight and leaving the attacks for night as most usually did.

It was hot as fuck by midday and Michael was complaining about the heat as Jack strode ahead of him. Eventually, Jack stopped and looked at him with something like amusement.

“What, am I just too hot for you to handle?” Jack smirked, and Michael’s eyes widened and he stuttered in shock for a response.  
Jack laughed and turned his back to Michael as Michael attempted to think of something to say in response. Then, Jack ended up tripping over a root in the ground and only just managed to catch himself before he fell and Michael grinned, jogging up in front of Jack and glancing behind him.  
“Oh, so you’re falling for me now, are you?” Michael laughed at his own joke and Jack grumbled something in response, and the rest of their work was filled with cheesy flirtatious jokes and Michael had to wonder how the hell he had entertained himself on these sorts of walks before when Jack hadn’t been around.

* * *

(RYAN)

Ryan was tired.  
He was tired of walking, he was tired of the three motherfucking birds that just wouldn’t leave him the fuck alone and he was tired of the fucking trees everywhere that made him paranoid about some sort of new Infected being able to climb the trees and jump out at him.  
He had been walking for almost a whole day, determined to put as much space between the city and Ray as he possibly could.

Ray, the kid who was definitely a lot younger than he could’ve imagined with such a highly regarded reputation. He wondered if he was the first to see the kid and leave alive.  
Ryan thought back to the confrontation. He didn’t know it was Ray that the Hunters were trying to kill, and he wondered if he had of known if he would’ve made a different call on saving the kid’s life.  
Something inside said he probably would’ve done the exact same thing and he got frustrated at it.

From the stories, they said that Ray had a vendetta on a group of Hunters that had murdered his family and he was out to find them. But one look at the guy and Ryan knew it wasn’t true. He clearly wasn’t from the area, he looked more… Hispanic to Ryan, but he wasn’t really sure. Still, he assumed the kid was probably by himself and he didn’t seem all that… vengeful.

He shook his head, knowing it was useless of him to try and figure out the kid’s motives. He would probably never see the guy again- they were now in completely opposite directions and Ray seemed just as eager to see him again as Ryan did Ray, which was not at all.

He kept walking for about another mile, getting seriously irritated at those fucking birds that seemed to be flying a lot closer to him and a few times even hopping around on the group near him. He considered just blowing them up, but resisted wasting an explosive by doing so.

And then, suddenly, the birds stopped.  
Their annoying chirping stopped, and they seemed to freeze where they were on the branch above him. For a moment, the world stopped. It held its breath within the air around him, its muscles tensing through the seemingly frozen scenery- the branches had stop swaying, the leaves had stopped rustling.

And then the ‘play’ button was pressed, and the world erupted into movement. The birds flew away, and Ryan watched them go before he was getting out his pistol and checking his rounds.  
He stuck closer to the trees, using them as cover as he moved forward.  
He paused for a moment and listened, just barely able to catch the other sign of life. A whisper in the wind, two voices bickering with each other.

The ground beneath him made it hard to be stealthy, but he was doing a decent job at not stepping on any twigs that always seemed to ruin the stealth for everyone.  
He could hear the voices clearer, frowning when he heard the English accent on one.

“-ght, what about two million each year, but you gotta bang a guy every day.” The English one said and Ryan’s eyebrows rose slightly at the odd choice in conversation.  
“That doesn’t sound so bad, I’d do it. I’d do it for one million.” This voice wasn’t English, and Ryan wondered if the guys were Hunters, Fireflys or Military.

He got a good look at them when he made his way into the tree line closest to the open clearing where the two camped at.  
They were sharing something between them, but Ryan couldn’t see it clear enough to know what it was. One guy had tattoos all up and down his arms and hands, the most noticeable feature he could really see. The other one was clearly much younger, wearing an obnoxiously bright red shirt. He swore he could see arrows in the guy’s backpack, but it was definitely an odd choice in weapon and ruled out the guys being in Military, as they only worked with guns.

Hunters and Fireflys usually used the same, but some could branch out. Still, the bow and arrow was an odd choice in weaponry. He tried seeing what the tattoo guy had on him, but his bag was on the other side of him and Ryan couldn’t see it.

Then Ryan took another look at his tattoos and something bugged him. He tried to catch on to as much information as he could about the world around him by listening in on any other parties when he could. Tattoos… Tattoos… why was that the only information that Ryan seemed to be able to process?

And then he remembered. A quarantine zone had apparently been taken out by a rogue group a couple months back and a Firefly squad had been taken out single handedly. Both reports had rumours that the guy behind them had tattoos that ran up and down his arms and hands.

The name ‘Ram’ came to mind, but he knew that wasn’t it. Ramley? No… Ramsey, that was it. Geoff Ramsey. Another deadly shot. Ryan was willing to bet the English guy next to him was as well, knowing his luck.

Fucking christ, the world really wanted to fuck him over with meeting all these other fucking dead shots.

Ray was enough of a scare for a life-time, thank you, he didn’t want another two. He decided to avoid the confrontation, sinking back a few tree lines and attempting to go around.

He was stopped by the wire that tripped him up and the glass bottle shattering right beside him. He let out the word ‘fuck’ before turning, knowing that he hadn’t made it far enough to be able to run from the two.

He tried it anyway, but an arrow whistling dangerously close to his head and landing just a few meters in front of him stopped him in his tracks. He wondered if he was quick enough if he could kill maybe just one of them.  
Maybe Geoff. Maybe the English kid just had a lucky shot.

By the way the guy held the bow steadily, keeping it level with Ryan’s eyes, Ryan knew it wasn’t a lucky shot. Geoff had the gun pointed down towards his more… private areas and he grimaced, putting his gun away.

Geoff nodded, “Nice move.” He said, smiling a little. But it was cold and cautious and Ryan knew the guy had recognized him from the moment he caught sight of the pattern on his bandana.  
The English guy hadn’t seemed to come to the same conclusion, but when he noticed Geoff tensed up he did as well.

“So, what are you doing here, Sherlock Bones?” Geoff asked, stepping closer to Ryan and glaring at him.  
“Just trying to get around, my dear Watson.” Ryan replied, relaxing a tiny bit when he saw Geoff smile in the slightest. Still, they both remained on their guard.  
Ryan was really fucking tired of confrontations.

“Well, see, I’ve heard about you. You’ve heard about me,” Ryan started, “And I’ve been through this shit before not even two fucking days ago. So how about we have a repeat of that, where we just respect each others paths and let each other go?” Ryan tried, going to walk backwards but stopping at Geoff’s glare.  
“Who was the other run-in?” Geoff asked, unamused by Ryan’s attempts to get away.  
“Ray, or as you may know him, Ray of Darkness. Awfully cheesy name, but then again if mine’s Sherlock Bones then I’m not really doing any better.”

Geoff’s eyes widened slightly at the mention of Ray’s name, but he made no comment on it. “So, what’s my nickname then?”  
“Geoff.”  
“Ah, that’s fuckin’ boring.” Geoff sagged a little at that, but Ryan knew it was really only for show and would most certainly shoot his dick off if Ryan made a bad move.  
“What about Goeff?” The kid beside him suggested and Geoff shot him a quick glance before seeming to consider it.  
“That’s fucking stupid, dumbass. You know what they call you? The Vacuum. Your nose is just so big it fucking sucks up any Infected around.”  
The kid sulked a little at that and Ryan found himself amused despite his current situation. He would have loved to enter into the banter, but he was pretty sure if he made any attempt his manhood was going to seriously pay for it.

They stood there for a while, both parties unsure of how to sandle the situation. Ryan was beginning to sway a little on the spot as the tiredness really began to catch up on him. Geoff watched him carefully.

And then his eye contact was broken and he was cursing and Ryan was only just able to hear the sound of a bottle crashing on the other side of the clearing. It was far away, Ryan knew there was a good hundred to two hundred meter clearing between the two bottles.

Geoff walked up to him, the gun still in its threatening place and he eventually stood behind Ryan, poking him with the gun in his back. Ryan knew better than to make a smart ass comment.

“You’re going to walk forward with me, just in case this is your escape plan or some fucking bullshit. We’re going to walk into that first tree line and we’re going to see what all that fuss is about, clear?”

Ryan nodded, his mouth suddenly dry and he was pushed forward. The English kid was following behind, the tension not leaving his body as he kept the weapon taut.

He knew Geoff wouldn’t listen to him if he said the other bottle crashers weren’t with him, so he remained silent as they made their way to the first tree line.  
They were greeted with the sights of the Military poking their way around the clearing, inspecting the tiny tents and fire.

Geoff held his breath behind him, and Ryan could see the armour the guys were wearing clearly, knowing it would be nearly impossible to take them down with only a single shot each. Arrows wouldn’t do much damage either.

“Nice to see they got the weapons upgraded.” Geoff mumbled behind him before forcing Ryan back. Ryan didn’t have much time to think on the comment before they were being forced back a few tree lines and Geoff was instructing them to climb up the damn tree.

The English kid seemed to be a monkey, the way he quickly climbed up. Ryan knew he was in no way a monkey, and there was no way in hell he was getting up that tree. However, the threat of the gun at his back prodded him and he reluctantly climbed the tree as quick as he could, Geoff right below him.

The kid helped him up on the last few branches before pulling the bow right back on him. Geoff wasn’t as agile either, but they all made it up before the military made it to the area.

Geoff whispered to them. “These guys won’t find us up here. They’re trained to look around, not up. However, if they do, we’re fucking dead and there’s not a single thing we can do about it. We run, that’s the best option. For now, we wait up here and see if we have an opportunities. These guys won’t leave for a while.”

Night turned to day and Ryan found himself extremely tired, resting up against the base of the tree. The other two had long since lowered their weapons after taking Ryan’s into their own backpacks. Now the three of them sat there awkwardly on the branches, trying to ignore the kid’s clear sense of uncomfortableness as he moved in agitation.

Finally, Geoff got fed up and glared at the kid. “Fucking stop that, would you?” He quietly demanded, his voice annoyed.  
The kid shook his head. “I need to piss.” He admitted, his words even quieter and Ryan was barely able to catch them. Ryan had to admit he had to aswell, but he wasn’t shifting uncontrollably unlike the kid.  
“Piss on them.” Ryan commented, his tired mouth seeming to have no filter. It didn’t bother the other two, though, who smiled. The kid seemed to even consider the idea.  
“No one’s pissing anywhere. Look, in an hour it’ll be easier. They came from that direction,” Geoff pointed off into the direction Ryan had been headed, “meaning they probably have all sorts of traps set up on that other side. They probably have people covering the other side, though, which is where we want to go. It’s easier to avoid people than traps.”  
Ryan frowned, “I just came from there though, I don’t want to go back.”  
“Boo-hoo, shut the fuck up.” Geoff shut Ryan up pretty quickly with that.  
“Anyway, we want to go as far to the side as we can, but I bet there’s traps and shit there. We just need to see if the patrol dies down in an hour.”

Die down it did. More than half the soldiers were relieved of their posts, going to warm their hands by the fire. Geoff made the sign to start climbing down, the English kid going down first. Geoff gestured for Ryan to go, keeping the gun on him and Ryan made no move to run anyway. Geoff was right- if Ryan couldn’t even avoid Geoff’s traps, then he certainly would never be able to avoid the Military’s. Besides, if he did get caught his chances of escape were probably a lot higher with the two.

Geoff climbed down and he signalled for them all to move forward, closer to the five soldiers that stood basically in a line at the clearing. Geoff gestured them a little more to the right, trying to go for a wider berth around the soldiers and hoping they’d escape their sights. They were going well so far, Ryan following between the English kid in the front and Geoff behind him.

And then the kid in front of him stepped on a twig. It seemed to be the loudest possible thing he could’ve stepped on and immediately the scenery around them went from quiet and still to loud and frantic with the single snap! of the twig.

Geoff hissed at them to run and hide, all three of them seeming to go in separate directions as they sprinted forward. He lost sight of the kid in front of him and he could no longer hear Geoff behind him, but he could hear the Military shouting at each other. He could see their torch lights shining just a little on the left in the corner of his eyes and he cursed, ducking to the right behind going behind a tree.

He heard a quiet whistle, one that barely reached his hearing, and he looked around immediately. It definitely wasn’t a bird, so he figured it was probably a sign from Geoff or the kid. He caught sight of the bright red shirt in the thick foliage of leaves in the tree just in front of him, and the kid grinning at him from a high branch.

Ryan only just saw him before he heard Geoff, his voice a harsh whisper as he called for Ryan and… wait, what was that name?

“Gavin!” Geoff hissed, his footsteps slowing but coming closer. So the English kid’s name was Gavin. Honestly, Ryan was a little disappointed, he was hoping it was something more like George or William or Charles or something like that. Ryan waited until Geoff was practically right next to him before leaping out from behind the tree to grab Geoff, one hand going over his mouth to cover any sounds he could make that could alert the Military.

He quickly dragged Geoff behind the tree he had been hiding behind, shoving Geoff roughly against the bark and keeping the hand over his mouth, his eyes flickering to the tree where Gavin was and hoping Geoff got the idea. Gavin let out another low whistle and Geoff relaxed, nodding at Ryan who slowly took the hand away from his mouth.

The only thing Ryan could hear was the Military closing in on them and the harsh breathing of his own and Geoff’s, both trying to keep it quiet. Ryan took a look around the tree, seeing the lights of the torches in the distance and Geoff seemed to be watching him, before turning himself, watching for a few moments before turning back to Ryan.

Unfortunately, he turned a little too fast and managed to knock his head against Ryan’s who had leaned forward just a little too much. Both of them cursed as quietly as they could, the pain to their heads being the only thing they cared about for a few seconds.

And then, all of a sudden, Geoff was grabbing Ryan by the arm and pulling him closer, both of them as squashed against the tree trunk and each other as possible. Ryan tried to take a peak around the tree to see why Geoff reacted so suddenly, but Geoff stopped him by squeezing his wrist.

Ryan found himself closing his eyes, trying to listen beyond their breathing and listen to the sound of the footsteps of the soldiers as they made their way to the forest. They were awfully close, one being so close they seemed louder than both of their breathing.

Then they stopped and Ryan was holding his breath, counting the seconds before the soldier was moving again. Thankfully, away from them. They waited a few more moments, Geoff squeezing Ryan’s arm again to try and get his attention.

It was only then that Ryan realised just how close they were and he fought against reeling away in surprise. He took a calm step backwards instead, even though his heart was wildly hammering at his ribs.

It was just because of the soldier getting so close, he told himself. Nothing else to do with Geoff.

Geoff signalled to move forward, stopping under Gavin’s perch and gesturing him to climb down. He did so quickly, and all three of them moved forwards as quickly as they could, Gavin now a lot more careful of where he was stepping. Eventually, the seemed to be clear of the patrol but they didn’t stop walking. For all they knew, the patrol could be right behind them, keeping the same distance and they couldn’t afford to risk any more clumsiness.

They walked for a long time, and Ryan began to wonder if it was close to daybreak. Even with the nap in the tree, he was still extremely tired and the fatigue was getting to him. Geoff gestured for them to climb another tree, Gavin going up well beyond them. Ryan and Geoff sat near the middle branches, Geoff passing a water bottle between them which Ryan took a very grateful sip from.

Gavin eventually climbed down to them, Ryan just noticing the rip near the middle of his shirt. He wondered where he got it.

“I can’t see them, but I can see the fire they have going. We’re a long distance away now, we should be fine.” Even as he said it, his voice was still quiet. Geoff passed him the water bottle, Gavin taking a small sip.  
Then he seemed to hesitate on the next piece of news. “I saw something else, though. I looked ahead at our path, and there’s Military all around us. We got them behind us, in front of us and basically just covering up this whole bloody forest.”

Geoff cursed and Ryan sagged a little at that. “I mean, if we move quickly enough now we could still use the night to our advantage.” Ryan suggested and Geoff gave him an odd sort of look that Ryan couldn’t place.  
“Take another look,” Geoff told Gavin, “see if we can get out. There has to be a path we can use.”

Gavin went back up the tree and Geoff sighed. “Guess we’re stuck with each other, unless, of course, you want to go another path. Which is probably where even more Military is, according to Gav.”  
Ryan considered his options. He could see if he could get around and disband from Geoff and Gavin, or he could continue sticking with them. They certainly weren’t bad company, at least. He hesitated before he answered, but he was pretty sure on his answer.

“Guess you’re still going to be stuck with me.”  
Geoff smiled a little at that and Ryan stretched out his arms.  
“So, you were dropping hints earlier that you know how the Military runs? I take it you’ve had encounters with them before?” Ryan asked, watching carefully for Geoff’s reaction, which was just a shrug.  
“Yeah, I used to work with the Military. Stationed in a quarantine zone which is pretty much now abandoned. Riots broke out and it all just turned to shit, I guess.” Geoff answered.  
Ryan went to go further into the subject, but was stopped by some sort of liquid dripping down right behind Geoff.

Geoff turned to see what Ryan was looking at, then lost it in hysterical laughter. Ryan then realised what the liquid was and couldn’t help but laugh a little as well, but then scrunched his face up in disgust.

“You couldn’t have taken a piss down on the ground, Gavin?” Ryan asked, trying to look up to see where Gavin was then realising that was probably a bad idea.

“Nope. Too much running. However if I waited ‘til I climbed down again then I possibly would’ve pissed myself. Or on you.” Gavin answered nonchalantly, like he wasn’t just pissing on top of a very high branch.

Eventually it stopped and Ryan just hoped that when he got down from the tree it wouldn’t be surrounded in a ring of piss or something. Geoff seemed to consider a few options before speaking up.

“Gav, did you come up with anything?” Geoff asked Gavin as he climbed down to them.  
Gavin nodded, “There’s a small path to our right that we might be able to use to get past them. However, I highly doubt we could get past there in daytime, so we need to move right now.”  
“How far away are we?” Ryan asked, looking to the right like he could see the path from where he was.  
“About a mile, maybe a little less. We need to move on this certain bendy path thing though. I just don’t know why they’re all there at the forest line.”  
Geoff shrugged, unable to come up with an answer. They all climbed down, and to Ryan’s great relief there was not a visible ring of piss at the bottom.

They began walking, taking out their weapons once again. Gavin’s weapon was probably the best for stealth, so they made a pact that Gavin would be the one to shoot if anything came at them, like an Infected or just some random lonesome wanderer. They still didn’t give Ryan his weapons though.

Gavin lead them, Ryan trying to keep a careful eye on where he put his footing. After the twig incident, he didn’t really trust the kid to not go stepping on another one. They lost the help of the moonlight at one point, the foliage of the thick leaves above them creating a canopy to block out the light.

They stumbled around a little more and Ryan knew that all three of them were exhausted and fatigued. Ryan’s leg muscles hurt from the sprinting and climbing and walking and goddamn he was sick of being tired and exhausted.

Due to their far distance, Ryan knew he could speak without worrying too much if the sound would carry. They were way too far for the Military to hear them. So he spoke up.

“So, how’d you two meet?” He asked, shrugging when Geoff gave him another weird look.

Gavin didn’t seem as hesitant. “He got stuck in the lingerie store.” Gavin recalled, Geoff immediately jumping to correct him.

“I did not get stuck! The wall just collapsed behind me and I ended up having to smash through the window, alright? Besides, didn’t you say you ended up there as well?”  
Gavin turned, grinning at Geoff cheekily, “Yeah, but I didn’t get myself stuck in there now, did I?”  
Geoff grumbled, mumbling something under his breath that Ryan and Gavin had no chance of hearing.  
Ryan tried to get the conversation to continue, “So was it a mall or something you met in?”  
Gavin nodded, turning back to forwards. “Yeah, I was on the second floor and the lingerie store was on the first. I was fine by myself, but then this bloody donut had to go and ruin it and ruin one of my explosives. The mob of Infected heard it down from the basement and we basically ended up having to team up against a whole mob of these Infected, Clickers included, by the way. And then Geoffrey said I was so bloody brilliant he forced me to come along with him on his adventure.”  
Ryan reminded himself to ask Gavin about the explosives later. It was always nice to have someone around who knew a thing or two about them.  
“That was all correct,” Geoff said, “until that last part. This fuckin’ asshole refused to leave me alone.”  
Ryan sighed, wondering just how far the two of them could go when it came to bickering. He was sure he could wind up Gavin enough and have the two of them bickering for a very long time, considering Gavin’s odd choice in topics.  
Gavin sulked a little, but it wasn’t long before he changed the topic. “So, Ryan, if someone gave you five million each year, but you had to blow ten guys each morning and night, would you do it?”  
Ryan rolled his eyes, well aware that Gavin couldn’t see him do it. “I make no comment on that.” He answered, Geoff muttering a “thank fucking christ” behind him.

Gavin kept trying to bring up different questions as they walked, but Ryan would deflect them. He was too tired to really deal with bickering, but it seemed Geoff wasn’t. The two kept at it until Ryan eventually just told the both of them to shut up when they went for a piss break before they got too close to the Military.

Gavin, at least, still seemed to be on course.and knew where he was going, despite the very distracting conversations. He stopped them at a certain point, pointing to a tree and Ryan shook his head.

No, he was not climbing another fucking tree. He wasn’t a goddamn monkey.

Gavin just rolled his eyes and climbed up by himself, Geoff keeping a careful eye on Ryan who folded his arms over his chest.  
“So how long have you known Gavin?” Ryan asked, his voice a lot quieter than what it had been a few minutes ago.  
“Four days.” Geoff told him, leaning against the bark and risking a quick glance up to see if he could see Gavin. His bright red shirt certainly had to have stood out, even in the dark, but apparently Gavin had found a good spot to conceal himself in. He climbed down after a few minutes.

“Well?” Geoff asked Gavin, who looked back in the direction they were headed.  
“It’s still clear, but there’s a fence we’ll need to climb over. It looks clear from the other side, but if we climb it there’s the possibility the guys can see us on it. Actually, they most definitely will. Without a doubt.”  
Geoff grumbled something under his breath, looking at Gavin dangerously and Ryan wondered if he would hit the kid. He seemed to think better of it, instead just walking forward. “It’s too late to turn back,” he said, “And we can be concealed in the darkness, hopefully.”

Ryan sighed, wondering if he should’ve just found his own path after all. Still, it was a little too late to turn back now and he was most definitely not climbing another damn tree to try and find a different pathway.

They moved forward, waiting to see if any patrol would cross in front. On the count of three, they slowly creeped forward, still concealed by the trees, but once they climbed the fence they knew they’d have to make a run for it if any alarm was signalled.

They made Ryan climb over first, who thankfully got over without a problem. However, when Geoff climbed over Ryan could hear the alarm being raised just to the left of them and Gavin was quick to climb over, all three of them sprinting for it, Ryan telling his legs to shut up and deal with it when they began to hurt.

When he could finally sit down and relax, he was going to promise himself never to sprint or climb or anything ever again. He just wanted to sit down and never get up.

They kept running, their pace eventually slowing after Gavin tripped up one to many times and they seemed to just resign themselves to having to stop and hide out.  
They ended up in a repository of small warehouses of some sort, ducking into one with the roller door shutter partially open. Geoff and Ryan worked quickly to shut it as quietly as the could. They waited at the shutter, trying to listen out for any Military.

After almost half an hour, they finally relaxed a little. They spoke quietly as they walked around, inspecting around them. Unfortunately, nothing interesting. They grouped in the center of it, sitting down and opening their bags to check over their supplies. Geoff still didn’t hand back his guns, but Ryan couldn’t blame him.

“Gavin and I will take turns on patrol, and we check outside as much as we can. We should leave in daylight, but we need to sleep for a bit and make sure the Military haven’t chased us down. Gavin, you’re on first watch. Climb onto one of the shelves or something and try and get a high point, just in case anything does happen. Ryan, you and I are going to sleep.”

They found a shelf with empty cardboard boxes and laid them out on the concrete floor, trying to get a little more comfortable. Geoff used his backpack as a pillow, giving Ryan’s guns to Gavin who looked a little wary of them when he was handed them, but still tucked them away into his own bag.

It didn’t take long for Ryan to fall asleep, exhaustion just so overwhelming he was able to overcome the uncomfortableness of the floor and was soon asleep.

When he woke up, he was awoken by a man in his face. He immediately went to go for his guns that were usually next to him, but the man above him pinned him down by the shoulder and he took a moment to remember who he was.  
Right. Geoff. Geoff had his guns.

He took another moment to get up after Geoff let go of him, and he looked around to see Gavin still asleep next to him. He looked at Geoff in confusion, wondering why Geoff would’ve woken him first before Gavin. Surely, if Ryan had attacked, it would be much safer to have Gavin on guard?

But then Geoff put a finger to his lips and Ryan watched on in confusion as Geoff gave him a mischievous grin and Ryan found out that Geoff was probably the most charming alarm ever to exist.

Geoff put his ass into Gavin’s sleeping face and almost blew his cover by laughing before he farted right on top of Gavin.

Gavin woke up with a series of retching and gagging noises as he rolled over, making a run to the shelf beside him and began to dry heave as Geoff lost it in hysterics behind him. Ryan only got the faintest whiff of it before he was moving, jogging to the other end of the room and trying to escape it.

He really did feel sorry for Gavin. He was just glad it wasn’t himself on the end of that treatment, but he wondered how long that would last out.  
Wait, a voice said in his head, since when did you decide you’d hang around with them for some more mornings?  
Ryan ignored the voice, not really sure of an answer for himself.

“I checked the time. It’s just a little past daybreak, and we should move.” Geoff announced, checking his ammunition one last time before seeming to hesitate as he went through his bag. He handed Ryan one of pistols, who took it cautiously.

“Are you coming with us?” Geoff asked, keeping Ryan’s other pistol in his grip.  
Ryan barely took a moment to answer, “Unfortunately, you seem to be stuck with me for now. I haven’t got another place to really go anyway.”  
Geoff nodded, handing him the other pistol and Ryan stored one of them into his backpack. He checked the bullets on the one he was holding, thankful there was still as many as when he was forced to give the guns up.

“Alright assholes, guess it’s time to head out to Austin.” Geoff declared before he and Ryan opened the shutter and stepped out into the hot day.

* * *

(JACK)

Michael had convinced Jack to give him a piggy-back.

It had taken nearly an hour of complaining, but eventually Jack caved in and Michael whooped with glee as he jumped onto Jack’s back. It was a short one, granted, because Jack had said he would set Michael down the second they stepped out of the bushland.  
Jack and Michael had no idea how long the bushland went for, and Jack was glad to find out it actually ended quite soon, much to Michael’s own dismay. Jack set him down a little harshly, laughing as Michael fell onto the floor and let out a few curses at Jack.  
The two of them had been throwing their cheesy jokes back at one another. He didn’t really know what to think of it- after all, if he did it with anyone else it would usually be considered flirting. But with Michael, it was very unclear of if he was just mucking around or genuinely flirting.  
Michael was definitely hard to get a read on, to say the least. It unsettled Jack a little bit, but the guy was otherwise pretty good to have around. He just hoped he was a good shot with the shotgun.

Just below them, there was a slight slope downhill that lead into a small park of some sorts, which they could see lead to a road just a bit further beyond. Michael turned to Jack, grinning mischievously and Jack wondered if he was going to regret ever saving Michael.  
“Race you.” Michael said, already running down the hill with Jack just shaking his head slightly before setting off down the hill.  
It was definitely not an easy run. Not like running was easy or anything, but running down that hill was a hell of a lot harder than Jack could’ve thought. Michael did it with ease, his balance shifting back to center whenever he was knocked around a bit.

Jack was definitely not as graceful. Every stumble (and there were a lot) nearly lead to him face-planting and becoming a sled down the rest of the hill.

Eventually, thank god, Jack reached the bottom. Michael had reached it long before him, laughing as Jack kneeled over and attempted to catch his breath.

“You just wait,” he panted, “I’ll kick your ass in tennis.”  
Michael just laughed harder, helping Jack up from his position and Jack couldn’t help but smile back at Michael. They began to walk across the open park, the eeriness of it all not affecting Jack as much thanks to the smile on his face as Michael’s laughter kept going.  
It was a small suburb, the only playground being the single slide and sandpit.

“At least it’s not swings,” Michael said, “those things are fucking scary.”  
Jack couldn’t help but agree. The slide was definitely much better.  
They got to the road, crossing it to reach to first line of houses. Jack broke down the first door, kicking down the pathway of subtlety with it. Michael just shrugged and went along with it, scanning the house. They didn’t pick up any supplies as their bags were already quite full, even though Michael did take a liking to the dried out beef jerky while they walked.

The house was clear, so they moved into the backyard. After making sure that was clear, they jumped the fence into the next house and repeated the whole process over again. They were lucky- they hadn’t had any run ins with Infected, but they also hadn’t found any traces of Jack’s community.  
Still, they kept going.

They reached another street, Jack turning to Michael after hesitating to kick down the door in front of him.  
“You don’t have to stay, you know.” Jack told him, watching as Michael looked at him with something like shock.  
“What, you getting rid of me?” Michal asked harshly, giving him a glare.  
Jack immediately reeled, “No, no! I’m just saying, you don’t have to stay with me if you want to go somewhere else.”  
“You’re trying to get rid of me!” Michael yelled, pointing an accusing finger at Jack.  
“I’m not, I swear! You’re good to have around and-” Jack was cut off suddenly by Michael.  
“Good. Then that settles that. Now kick down this fucking door.” Michael demanded, folding his arms impatiently. Jack shook his head in exasperation before kicking down the door, smiling slightly as Michael pushed his way in first.

At one point the suburb ended and they followed a main road, following signs to get closer to the city. They began to see barricades, but they had long been broken down by Hunters or something else. It was beginning to get dark and they eventually decided they’d settle down in a house in the next neighbourhood.

Unfortunately, this one wasn’t abandoned like the many others before hand. They could hear the Infected before they saw them, walking around lethargically on the street and in the occasional house.

They had decided to settle down on the next neighbourhood, and this seemed to be the only one for quite a while.  
So they decided to deal with the problem. Jack and Michael got into the backyard of one of the two story houses, climbing up to the top. The window, thankfully, was already smashed and Jack could see the empty ammunition rounds on the floor and wondered just how long ago the town had been taken over.  
He wondered which Infected down there was the one that had been sitting at this window before them.

Jack went back down into the kitchen and found a large wine glass, loud enough to create a very loud disturbance that would hopefully attract all the Infected towards one area. Jack looked around and came across one explosive and a pistol, glad that the people before them hadn’t used them yet.  
Jack threw the wine glass into the street, just a few meters below. As expected, the closest came running immediately. Most of them were Runners, however Jack did see one Clicker.

He threw the explosive after enough had gathered and he hoped it was rigged to blow up as soon as it hit the ground.  
Thankfully, it was, and took out most of the Infected. The rest Michael and Jack cleaned up, however there was one left and Jack had very well long ago run out of bullets and had been relying on Michael to shoot them, but he was taking time to reload.

And then the Infected was shot down from a shot in the head by someone in the house a few down from theirs, also a double story. Jack could only just see the rifle barely sticking out the window, but it was getting too dark to see inside the window.

That wasn’t where he needed to be looking, though. The person shooting had made their way downstairs, opening the front door and immediately raising his hands up in a sign of surrender. Jack and Michael looked at each other in confusion before wearily making their way downstairs and opening their own front door. They didn’t greet him in surrender- Michael had his shotgun pointed right at the guy, who didn’t seem too affected by the barrel pointed at him.

They met in the street, only a couple of meters between them. There were no street lights, so Jack could only just see him thanks to the moonlight. He, too, like Michael and Jack wore glasses.

He kept his hands up before he started waving them slightly, “You, uh, mind if I put these down? They’re starting to hurt and it feels like I’m waiting for a high five even though I know I’m not getting one.”

Jack frowned, watching carefully as Michael nodded and the other guy lowered his hands. “Honestly, I thought there was more of you. If I knew it was just the two of you, I wouldn’t have bothered leaving the house. But still, I’m out here now. I would also like to point out that I was here first.” The guy said, shrugging a little.

Michael glared a little and asked: “Then why hadn’t you taken out the Infected?”

The other guy shrugged again, “Ever used them as defence? They work well to keep out Hunters and the Military also tries to avoid it as well. They didn’t see me and I locked all the doors and they’re not exactly smart enough to unlock them, so I just left them there as defence.” He explained and Jack couldn’t help but admire him slightly for the tactic.

“So, where you headed?” Jack asked, the other guy seeming to consider before pointing in the direction Michael and Jack had been headed away from.

“Heard there was a small community there, hoped I could hide out for a few days. Did you guys see it?” The other guy asked.

Michael lowered his weapon slightly and Jack sighed. “Yeah, I was part of it. I went out to deal with some Hunters in the outer area but when I came back… they were all gone. We hope they’re in that direction, in Austin.” Jack explained, the other guy nodding.

“Well I’m Ray,” the guy introduced himself after an awkward silence and Michael was lowering the gun, Jack looking quickly at him and noticing the shock crossing Michael’s face.  
Then Jack pieced it together, but before he could say anything Michael stepped up.

“Ray of Darkness, hey?” Michael asked, seeming to size up Ray, who gave him an amused sort of stare.

“That’s me. Ray of Death, or what the fuck ever they say. Problem?”

Michael shook his head, a smile tugging at his lips. “Not at all. It’s just that you’re a lot cuter than I was told.”

Neither Jack nor Ray had any idea how to respond to that. Ray seemed to stiffen slightly, then relaxed and gave Michael a playful wink. Jack stood there in shock.  
At least it proved that Michael wasn’t flirting with him earlier, as he seemed to be flirting with this other guy instead pretty clearly.  
He couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed at that.

“So you know my name, but I don’t know yours.” Ray said, stuffing his hands into his hoodie pockets and Jack wondered how the hell the guy survived the heat in the ridiculously warm clothes he was wearing..

“I’m Michael, this is Jack, as you, uh, know already.” Michael answered, his gun dropping all the way now to rest beside him.

“Michael… Michael… That rings a bell. Did you blow up something at one point or another?” Ray asked.

“Yeah, part of a quarantine zone. No one was killed but a few soldiers were hurt.” Michael explained, Jack looking at him and trying to recall ever hearing such a story. He did have his own sources, after all, as Ray seemed to have, but honestly he had heard of way too many explosions that they all just seemed forgettable. Except the Haywood guy, he was a whole new matter entirely.

“Well, I suggest going a little bit to your right when you start walking into the wildness out there. There’s not many Infected out there, you should be able to avoid most of them if you’re careful. Austin’s pretty good, just be careful not to run into Ryan the Skeleton Guy. He’s pretty scary, actually.” Ray advised.  
Oh, of course, one of the most highly regarded killers were in Austin. Wonderful.

“You had a run-in with him?” Michael asked, tilting his head slightly.  
“Yeah, he saved my ass but then we ended up with each other’s guns pointed at each other. I got the fuck out of there and so did he, so it was a win-win. I don’t know where he went, though, he could’ve stayed back there in Austin. I know he went to the left of my path, which is why I’m saying to go right.”

Michael nodded and Jack hesitated before he asked the next question. “I guess we’re all crashing here, so why not share a room and patrol? We’ll get the fuck out of each other’s way after that, Ray can go in his direction and we’ll go in ours. Sound alright?”

Michael agreed to it pretty easily after Ray did. They decided to settle for Ray’s house, as he had picked a better sniping spot and it had a wider view of the street. Jack offered for first watch, Ray and Michael seeming to be comfortable enough already to share a queen sized bed.

He sat on the chair at the window, waiting until the moon hit a certain point before he went to wake Ray up for his shift and went to go lie down on the bed. Ray woke as soon as Jack got off the chair, his footsteps not really quiet but definitely not loud enough to wake someone sleeping and he wondered if Ray was a light sleeper or if he was asleep at all.  
It was a pretty stupid move, being so unguarded with two men who he barely knew either of.  
He couldn’t help but fall asleep as his wariness faded, for some reason feeling safe enough to settle down into sleep pretty quickly.

He was woken by Michael and he was glad to see that he woke up alive. Ray was awake next to him, looking like he had at least gotten some sleep. Jack yawned and stretched, grabbing his bag and searching through it before grabbing a tin of canned apple slices. He noticed Ray looking at them with something akin to envy and he considered his options for only a moment before passing it to Ray, who looked at him with disbelief.

“You don’t mind?” Ray asked, not yet making a move to grab the tin but definitely keeping a closer eye on it.  
“No, seriously, take it. You’re as skinny as a stick, you need it.” He shaked the tin a little, like he was luring in a dog for some food, but Ray took to it and grabbed it, muttering a thank-you and managing to open it himself and began to eat.

Jack grabbed himself a muesli bar instead, Michael doing the same. They sat there in silence for a while until Ray had finished half of the tin then had pushed it away.  
“I can’t eat anymore,” he complained, still looking at it with longing.  
“You haven’t eaten much, I assume. Your stomach has just shrunk, you probably won’t be able to eat much for a long time.” Jack explained, grabbing the tin and sharing the rest between Michael and himself.

Ray nodded, then stood up. “It was nice meeting you two, thanks for the apples. I guess I’m heading to fuck-knows-where-ville now.”  
Michael seemed to want to say something, stuttering a few times before being able to get it past his lips. “You can come back with us, you know? If we find the community in Austin, we can all go back to the town and you can chill out for like the rest of the years or something.” Michael looked at Jack with sudden shock, realising that he had just asked this without Jack’s permission.

Jack didn’t mind at all, really. He waved it off and continued on for Michael, “we’ve got supplies to last us a while. Even if we don’t find them, we can still go back through those towns and take those supplies. We can survive, all three of us.”

Ray leaned against the wall, his hand rubbing the back of his neck as he thought. “I definitely work better solo.” He said, trying to fight his internal battle.

“I don’t know about that. Wouldn’t it be nice with a few more shadows? Jack killed a whole fuckin’ town of these cannibalistic hunters by himself. I’m pretty good with a gun and I have good humour. Surely, you could use the company?” Michael attempted to persuade, smiling slightly when Ray seemed to hesitate to answer now, instead of just brushing them off like Jack expected.

“If a get a few more tinned fruits, it’s a deal.” Ray finally decided, Jack’s shock clear on his face as Ray accepted the offer and hadn’t ended up brushing them off.  
“You got a deal.” Michael grinned, shaking Ray’s hand firmly.

Jack had checked their supplies once again before they began walking down the street. Ray said he had been walking for a good two days, even night time, and Michael was already grumbling about that.

Jack came up with the conclusion they would take watches at night so they could rest, hoping it would at least relax Michael a little. Michael still demanded the piggy-back though, and eventually Jack did give in to it.

Ray had complained in exaggeration after that, sending cheeky smiles at Michael who Jack knew was returning them back, encouraging Ray to act like a little shit. Ray had taken off his jacket, finally, tying it around his waist by the arms of it.

Ray and Michael had begun to play a little game, something along the lines of 21 Questions. Jack joined in at some points, but he was more amused by Ray and Michael bantering by themselves.

“So, Ray, where do you come from?” Michael asked, which was the first question that kicked off the whole damn thing.  
“New York.” He answered, grunting as he almost walked straight into a tree.

Michael snickered at him and called him a dumbass before going back to the topic. “No, like you’re clearly another nationality.”

“Oh, right, right. I’m hispanic, come from Puerto Rico. Been in New York most of my life, just moved into this shitty little apartment before the whole Infection broke out and I came down here for a visit to a friend. That never happened. At least some of these places I’m sleeping in now are better than my apartment back in New York, and I get to stay in these ones for free. You?” Ray avoided another tree and Jack couldn’t help but wonder just how many near tree misses he had had.

“New Jersey. So fuckin’ glad I’m not there right now, because I’ve heard the crime rates and shit there are fucking appalling. Not a surprise, obviously, because New Jersey is a fucking shithole full of assholes. I was only here for a day or two before the Infection, but everyone is so nice, even the fucking Hunters, that it’s just fucking weird. You people are weird. You hear that, Jack? You’re fucking weird.” Michael teased, poking his shoulder and Jack threatened to drop him.

“Oooh, fucking got ‘em!” Ray shouted, making ‘whoop’ing noises and raised his fist in the air. Jack rolled his eyes and then really dropped Michael, laughing as the man swore even more.

“You asshole.” Michael sulked from the ground, folding his arms childishly as Ray and Jack laughed.

Jack eventually helped him up, but refused to give Michael any more piggy-backs.

Ray and Michael continued their little game.

“So, Michael, why is your hair so curly?” Ray asked, taking one look at the man when he asked the question.  
 _Genetics, genius_ , Jack thought to himself.

“Because, asshole, it’s a representation of my sexuality.” Michael answered, barely missing a beat in the reply.

Ray didn’t get it at first, and honestly neither did Jack.  
Michael shook his head in pity.

“I mean, my hair is straighter than me.” Michael said it slowly, like he was trying to get through to five year olds. Then Ray stopped, looked at Michael, then looked up to his hair and lost it in laughter.

“Fucking ace joke,” Ray complimented, the grin still wide on his face even as he began walking again. Even Jack was grinning now, even contributing to some of the game and asking his own questions.

Eventually, Ray had asked how the two met. He had seemed hesitant at first, almost seeming to stop himself from asking the question. Jack picked up on it, and so did Michael, judging by the confused glance he shot to Ray once Ray had asked it.

Michael decided to fill him in on the story. Ray looked at both of them with an unreadable expression and nodded once Michael had finished.

Jack decided to ask the next question. "So, Ray, what's your plans?"

"Trying to get back to New York. I've heard there's a way to get back there, but I also recently just heard that there is a major Infection problem there. Besides, I'm not even sure if my family is still there or not." Ray said the last part quietly, Jack only just barely hearing it.

"And you're agree to come back to Austin with us?" Michael asked.

Ray nodded. "Yeah, I mean, I don't think there's much for me to go back into New York, y'know? Besides, you two are the first nicest people I've met out here, you haven't tried blowing my brains out or anything, and you even gave me tinned fruit."

Michael snickered a little at that. "Yeah, if it was anyone in this world other than Jack that came to save my ass I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be saving me at all."

Jack couldn't help but agree with that. If he had been any later, if anyone else had come instead of him, would they have bothered saving Michael? Probably not, no.

Ray and Michael went right back into the dumb questions, Jack ignoring most of them and continuing to walk. He knew that eventually the sky would get too dark for them to continue and they'd be forced to take a break before continuing on in the next day. He just hoped that no one would decide to bother with them.

Michael had attempted to jump onto Ray’s back for a piggy-back, but Ray had stumbled almost immediately and if Michael wasn’t so quick to get off both of them probably would’ve face-planted into the ground.

In return, Ray had jumped onto Michael and Michael had held him easily, turning his neck slightly to look at the grinning Ray.

“You weigh like fucking nothing, dude.” Michael told him, shaking his head slightly as Ray shrugged as best as he could. Ray remained on Michael’s back until Jack, who had walked up ahead of them, signalled for both of them to stop.

They had been following streets mostly for their walking, following Ray’s instructions as to how he walked out of Austin to get back in. Ahead, around the corner, Jack could hear a slight rumble.  
His eyes widened in sudden realisation and he was immediately signalling for Ray and Jack to run, realising that the sound was an engine.

And it was a much bigger than an engine, or a car. If he was right, it was a tank.

Ray and Michael had seemed hesitant to run, waiting for Jack to catch up before they truly began sprinting. Ray ducked into a front yard, Jack immediately going into the door. He fortunately found it unlocked, from a previous raid he assumed, and they all went inside.

“What was it?” Michael asked quietly, going to the front room and peeking out the blinds to see the street.

Jack tried to reclaim his breath. “A tank.” He said simply, and if he wasn’t so sure about it he would’ve laughed at the other two’s expressions.

“A fucking tank?” Michael asked in disbelief and Jack nodded, leaving Michael to curse every being in existence as he turned to Ray.

“Did you run across it? See it? When you walked by your self?” Jack asked Ray, who seemed quite shocked, already answering Jack’s question.

“I… No, the quarantine zone they have here has been abandoned. There’s no reason for a tank to be here. I don’t see wh- Oh. Oh, fuck. I heard that there were Hunters beginning to overrun the quarantine zones and strike up against the Military. It’s very possible there used to be a tank in the quarantine zone here…” Ray answered, trailing off at the end as he got his rifle out and checked the ammunition.

Jack swore under his breath, grabbing Michael’s arm as they got together.

“Alright, it’s likely the won’t get out the tank. They’re just going around and looking for trouble. All we need to do is get past them, which should be easy if we sneak behind backyards and the backstreets. If we get seen, we’re probably dead-”

“Probably.” Michael repeated sarcastically.

Jack continued on, shooting Michael an annoyed glare, “Yes, probably. We could get away if we’re quick enough. Just don’t get shot at.”

Ray and Michael nodded, all traces of the laughter and jokes earlier gone.

“They’re probably going to go around that area for a bit, so we gotta move now.” Jack ordered, quickly ushering Ray and Michael to the back of the house and opening the back patio door. He was right when he assumed there had been a raid- there were cracks and shattered glass near the back of the house, where the raiders had probably broken into to get in or out.

They climbed over the fence to get to the next house, keeping themselves crouched to avoid being seen through the windows of the houses. So far, they were going alright. They could all now hear the tank, and Jack could see Ray’s shoulders tense and Michael grit his teeth.

The tank was on the same street as the house they were currently in the backyard of and they paused, waiting to move to the next house after the tank passed the street. Ray took a peek over the fence and cursed, immediately whirling behind the fence before the first shot rang out.

“Ray, what the _fuck_!” Michael hissed, pulling Ray down from his step and managing to avoid to next fire of shots.

“It’s… this is the last house on the street. We have to go back and cross another fence to get onto another street, and fucking quickly.” Ray was already tracing their steps, running back to the other side of the fence and crossing before Jack and Michael followed.

They crossed another two houses, the tank following them, shooting through the house and hoping to get a lucky shot. As they were Hunters, they had no training and were just hoping for a lucky shot. They didn’t get it.

Jack, Michael and Ray crossed a different fence, getting into the backyard of another house that was on a different street. The people in the tank seemed to realise, quickly making their way to the street. However, it was enough time for the three of them to get a good head start.

“We’re moving away from our target here, we gotta get back on track.” Ray said between his heavy panting, all of them beginning to get exhausted from having the climb over the fences and run. The adrenaline from it all, though, was overpowering it.

Michael said something inaudible and continued, but hesitated climbing over the next fence. Jack looked at him in worry and Michael frowned.  
“He’s right, they’ll just chase us as far as they can before they corner us into a place we can’t hide from. They know this area better than us, they’ll get us eventually. We’re lost right now, we need to get back on track.” Michael said, looking at Ray who was peeking over the other side of the fence.

Jack took a moment to think, then nodded.  
“We’ll make our way back, then. Ray, what was on the other side of that fence we couldn’t go across?”  
Ray frowned, “A street, but across from it is a park which leads into swampland. I doubt the tank could follow us down there. I had to cross it before.”  
“That’s where we’re going, then,” Jack decided. “Alright, they’ll be shooting into every house. So once they get to this one, we go back. They probably won’t be expecting that, they probably think we’re ahead of them pretty good by now.”  
Ray and Michael nodded, Ray disappearing to hide behind the fence and Michael and Jack doing the same. They could hear the shots coming closer, the glass shattering as the bullets hit the windows.

When the bullets hit the house Michael and Jack were in the backyard of they immediately jumped the fence into the house Ray was in and they all sprinted back they way they came.

The tank, unfortunately, had seem them cross the first fence and was now following them back down the street. They jumped back onto the other street, gaining a few precious moments as they hurried back down their first fence-jumping path.

They got back to the house they were forced to turn away from, Michael and Jack ahead of Ray, who had stumbled before, and making no hesitation to jump. Ray caught up quickly, catching up with them easily across the quick street sprint.

They had just reached the park, the tank stopping on the street and turning to face them. The first wave of bullets hit, narrowly missing all of them as they ran.

Or so Jack thought. He had noticed Ray stumble, letting out a loud swear and Jack turned long enough to see the blood already soaking through his jeans, watching Ray attempt to keep running but stumbling so badly he nearly fell.

Michael turned to look back as well. “Oh shit, shit, _shit_. Ray!”

Michael and Jack were quick to turn back, Jack hauling up Ray on one side, Ray’s arm immediately falling around Jack’s neck as Jack went to put a hand around his waist. Michael did the same on Ray’s other side, both of them trying to make their way across the park as quick as possible while avoiding bullets.

Ray was swearing with nearly every step, letting out grunts of pain as he tried to hobble along with them. They could see the swampland now, but they could hear the tank behind them making its way across the park. Jack didn’t care about how close the bullets were to him, about how close the tank was getting.

They needed to get to the swampland. He needed to make sure Ray would be alright.

Somehow, miraculously, they did it. They reached the swampland, the grass beneath them turning into mud and Jack knew he would be wanting to replace his sneakers as soon as possible. Ray was beginning to crumble, his non-shot leg seeming to no longer support him everytime he took a step and Jack looked at Michael.

“You said he weighed basically nothing, right?” He asked quickly, Michael giving him an odd look before nodding. Jack stopped them, Ray joining in on giving Jack an odd look.

“Alright, sorry about this.” Jack said before he was crouching, his arm going down to hook at Ray’s knees and the other going to his back before he was lifting Ray into bridal carry, Ray doing his best to stop any noises of pain escaping.

He didn’t really succeed, though. Jack began to walk as fast as he could, slowly getting back into a slow-jog, Michael right beside him and checking behind his shoulder.

“They’re behind us, but they’ve stopped the tank. Doesn’t mean they won’t come out and shoot us, though, we gotta keep going and reach the end here,” Michael told them, “Ray, hey, Ray, there we go. We are we going after we reach the edge of the swamp here?” He asked, tapping Ray’s face to bring him into focus.

Ray’s face scrunched up slightly in concentration before he replied. “Gotta turn ri- left at the cross road that opens up after this path thingie.”

They were soon out of range of the bullets from the tank, but Jack took no chances in slowing down. If there really were those daring enough to step out from the safety of the tank to pursue them, then they had to keep their lead and hopefully lose them at the crossroad Ray had mentioned.

The mud was definitely one of the most unpleasant terrains to be running through, but Jack was certain that while it was disadvantaging them, it was also working against the possible pursuers.

Eventually the mud changed into more solid ground, Jack’s sneakers still making horrible squelching noises that would be useless if they ever needed to use stealth. Michael’s were doing the same, but they didn’t dare stop.  
But then Ray was poking Jack’s chest and he looked down, Ray telling him to stop.

So he did, Michael quickly doing so as well.  
“Your sneakers, they’re muddy. They can trace that,” Ray muttered, and Michael and Jack frowned at each other when they realised it.

“There’s a small lake if you just go back into the swamp and to the left. It should be able to conceal your tracks and it might lead to the same path,” Ray continued, then looked down at his leg. “Also, that’s bleeding a lot. The blood could drip as well and we’d be caught in no time.”

It was really the best option they had. Jack wasn’t too happy about having to step back into the mud, but it was an easy sacrifice to make if they could hopefully keep the pursuers off their trail.

They followed the edge of the swamp, heading left. Jack kept a careful eye on the path they needed to take that was just ahead of them, but it began to head up and became a street surrounded by houses.

“Ray. _Ray_.” Jack tried getting the attention of the man in his arms who was beginning to lose focus again, “What did you do once you went down that path?”

Ray focused again, thinking. “I went through one of the houses. I could point it out if we could get there. If you go through enough houses, you’ll end up on a really long road that sort of leads to a shopping centre.”

Jack and Michael couldn’t really think of a way to get to the house without leaving traces, so they continued to follow the swamp and hoped for the best. The swamp began to end, leading them into another grassy land and Michael and Jack checked behind them before stepping onto it.

Jack wiped his shoes as much as he could on the grass, hoping to get rid of as much mud as possible and hopefully conceal their tracks a little better. Michael did the same. There was nothing to do about Ray’s leg, though, but the blood had seemed to slow down a lot and Jack figured it wouldn’t drip at all. Hopefully.

They reached the edge of the grassland after about fifteen minutes of walking where they came across another set of houses on the other side of the street. And then, to their left, they could see just the very top of the shopping center. It was a fair bit into the distance, and Jack’s arms were already hurting despite how light Ray was, but he told his arms to suck it up and deal with it because they were going to reach those shops, damnit.

They walked across the street as fast as they could, hoping that the tracks wouldn’t be able to be seen in the darkness that was creeping up and hopefully the pursuers wouldn’t be able to trace them. They headed towards the shopping center, their pace slowing to a slow walk when they were certain they weren’t being pursued.

Eventually they reached the shops, finding that they were at the back of it. They moved closer, finding that the first entrance they came across was boarded with wooden planks and all sorts of other materials. They made their way around to the front entrance, where the entrance was not boarded, but the glass on it had been shattered.

Jack carefully put down Ray, who definitely looked paler even in the darkness. Michael had a torch on him, turning it on as he peered into the shattered glass on the door.  
“Looks clear, but there’s a noise trap trigger right in front of us.” Michael said, going to step over the frame that was the bottom of the door and crouching a little to get beneath the bits of glass that were still hanging on to the frame. He stepped over the trigger, then turned back to the other two.

Ray couldn’t put weight onto his shot leg, and Jack hoped for his sake there was hopefully a chemist or something inside. Michael and Jack worked together to get Ray through the door, Jack following behind Ray. They managed to avoid the trip-wire.

They their way inside, Michael supporting Ray as Jack looked around, his gun that he had taken from the supplies of where his community had been held in position ready to fire.

They moved forwards slowly, Jack checking behind his shoulder to see that Michael was now giving Ray a piggy-back in an attempt to keep Ray off his feet. The bleeding had started up again, beginning to drip down from Ray’s leg and onto the floor with the softest splat noise.

As far as Jack could tell, the shops were clear. He couldn’t help but worry about what made the previous people leave, despite it being rather well boarded up and protected, but he pushed it into the back of his mind when he stopped the chemist.

He signalled for Michael, who made his way into the chemist with a grin. Most of the items had been looted, as expected, but there was some bandages and gauzes and Jack could even spot some basic painkillers and some wound cleaners.

He got Michael to lie Ray down onto the ground, trying to assess as much of the wound as he could. He had been shot up in the thigh and the blood had seriously stained his jeans. Which, to get a better look at the wound, had to be removed.

He looked at Ray, who was gritting his teeth.  
“Ray, I need to take off your jeans, alright?” Jack asked, ignoring the sudden flush on his face that was caught by Michael’s torch.

He got Michael to help him in taking off the jeans, being as careful as possible in taking them off. Considering Ray hadn’t bled to death, it was at least safe to assume the bullet hadn’t nicked anything too important. Once the jeans were off, Jack sat there in stunned silence before grinning.

“You lucky bastard. It only managed to graze your thigh. It’s bleeding a lot, so we need to cover it and bandage it, but it’s only a graze. Jesus, how did we only get away from a tank with a graze?” Jack mumbled, still in disbelief over their luck.

He got Michael to hold the light over the wound as he worked, using the Betadine to clean the wound. Ray let out a gasp of pain as it first hit, then began his swearing again as the sting really settled in.

Jack put a large band-aid on it to cover it, then wrapped his thigh in gauze. He gave Ray the painkiller to swallow down with a bit of water and then helped Michael put Ray’s jeans back on. The blood was already turning the bandages red, so Jack packed the extra gauze into his bag.

Michael even had the decency to keep any comments about Ray’s briefs to himself, although Jack wondered how long that would last. He helped Ray to sit up, who was already beginning to look a little better.

And then there was a large shatter, made from multiple glass bottles, coming from the main entrance. Jack immediately knew someone had tripped up the noise alarm and he immediately assumed it was the Hunters that finally caught up.

He turned to Michael, who was crouched down next to Ray.

“Hide him in the back room,” Jack told Michael quietly, who nodded and dragged Ray silently to the back room of the chemist and turned off his torch to hide in the darkness.

Jack got his gun back out, peering out the edge of the chemist doors before moving into the hallway. He crouched, keeping low as he made his way closer to the main entrance.  
He managed to find the noise trap.  
Unfortunately, he found it by stepping over the broken shards of glass and he swore at himself mentally for the stupid mistake as he watched the figures just in front of him whirl to face him.

There was three of them. One of them turned on his torch that was strapped to either his pocket or backpack, illuminating Jack. However, Jack could now also see the three and saw that all three were armed.

Two of them had their guns pointed at Jack, while the other had a weapon Jack had never seen out in the field before. It was a bow and arrow, and while the choice in weapon was definitely strange, it was definitely no less deadly.

The one in front came closer to him, stepping into the light of the torch of the man to the left of him.

“Alright, you have to the count of three to surrender.” The middle one said, and Jack swore under his breath before dropping his own gun carefully in front of him, his hands raising. Maybe if Michael and Ray could get away while all this was happening…

The one to the right stepped up to take the gun, and Jack immediately took notice of the bandana covering the bottom half of his face. It was the design of a skull.

Of course, of course they had to run into the one guy that all three of them did not want to run into.  
Of course they ran into Ryan fucking Haywood and his newly founded friends.

* * *

(GAVIN)  
  
By the time it was dark, the three of them were still wandering around the streets. They were being as slow and as cautious as possible, meaning they took for-bloody-ever to really make any progress into Austin. He had turned on his torch that was strapped to the handle of his backpack, illuminating the path in front of them slightly.  
However, the walking wasn’t totally boring. Eventually, Gavin had managed to get Ryan to come in on the questions. They had argued for the majority of the day about flipping a coin three times before Geoff had whirled on them with his gun and threatened to “blow their fucking brains out” before he blew his own.

That had silenced that conversation for a while. Geoff and Ryan did strike up some conversation when it was getting closer to dusk, something about some television show that Gavin had never heard of so he didn’t really pay attention.

In the distance Gavin could see the shopping center. It was a pretty decent size- enough to have, assumedly, a small food court with all sorts of different shops. Hopefully there was a mattress place so he didn’t have to sleep on the floor. Ryan and Geoff had noticed it as well and they made the collective decision to check it out. If it was infested with Infected, they’d get out and go to the suburbs that were close by and find a house to hide in. If it wasn’t, then they’d found a good place to sit with for a while.

Although, Gavin was getting pretty sick of hiding in shopping centers.

They made their way around to the main entrance, where the glass had been shattered in on the doors. Geoff had made his way in first, stepping over the glass carefully. Gavin kept his torch on and attempted to light up the area at Geoff’s feet so he could see where he was stepping.

It was only when Geoff was a centimeter away from the trip wire did Gavin notice it. He called out a warning, the beginning of the word “Stop!” on his lips, but he only got the first letter out before Geoff had activated it.

He waited for the explosion. When it didn’t come, he relaxed a little, but the glass shattering still came as much of a shock as any explosion. He jumped, Geoff swearing under his breath before Ryan quickly made his way in, followed by Gavin.

“Alright,” Geoff muttered, “the trap certainly wasn’t set up by the Infected. We’ll look around, see if we need to deal with anyone. I don’t really want to move now.”

Ryan and Gavin nodded in agreement, the dark sky simply unappealing. Gavin never really liked the dark.

Ryan, he had to admit, still scared him a little. When he had teamed up with Geoff five days ago, Geoff had given him the run-down on a few well known names within the country. Ryan Haywood, a guy with a skeleton mask, was one. Ray ‘of Darkness’ was apparently also within the area, but Ryan had said they had gone their separate ways. There were a few more that Geoff threw around; Beardy (he was pretty sure Geoff just made that one up because of his physical description, but Geoff had promised the guy had gone into a community and hadn’t been heard much of), Ender (some guy who really loved to see the ‘end’ in people, apparently), Mogar, or rather Michael, (who liked blowing shit up) and a couple more.

So he had walked in, his bow drawn with his arrow ready to fire, with Ryan right beside him and Geoff in front. Gavin wondered if Ryan would turn to him, just shoot him right here, if Geoff would even notice or care.

 _‘He wouldn’t bloody shoot you in the head you donut, relax,'_ he told himself.

Anything about Ryan shooting him was forgotten when he heard the crunching of glass to the right of him. He turned, following Geoff as they made their way to the source of noise. His torch illuminated the guy that was crouched.

Geoff wasted no time in telling the guy to surrender, which he did. Ryan moved forward to take the weapon and Gavin noticed the way the guy’s eyes widened when he saw the mask on Ryan. Good, so Gavin wasn’t the only one scared of Ryan.

Then Gavin had seen it, and his mind went through the list of names Geoff had told him. One look at the beard on the guy and Gavin placed him as ‘Beardy’.

He moved forward to Geoff, his bow still strung and ready to fire. It was hurting his arms, holding the amount of tension, but he beared with it. He stepped up next to Geoff, whispering to him.

“You said Beardy was in a community.” Gavin told Geoff, who gave him a quick glance before realising what he meant, and he was swearing before stepping closer to Beardy.

“Where’s your ‘community’?” Geoff asked, his aim never wavering even as Beardy shook his head.

“I walked away from them, I went to investigate some Hunters in the area who had been causing trouble… and when I came back there was no one there. I swear.” Beardy said quietly and Gavin frowned.

“Then what are you doing up here?” Ryan asked, keeping a hold of Jack’s own weapon.

“We had a plan to meet up in Austin. We- I’m just trying to make my way there.” Beardy’s eyes met Geoff’s and they seemed to have a silent battle.

“We?” Geoff finally asked.

Beardy shook his head. “I… met two. Not part of the community. They’ve been helping me. One’s injured and we just needed to bandage him up. Please, we don’t want trouble.”

“Take us to the two. If there’s any more, you all die.” Geoff said it so coldly that Gavin wondered if he was really speaking to the same man he had been joking with all day. His blood ran cold and he couldn’t help but give the obviously disbelieving look to Geoff, who took no notice of it.

Beardy nodded, slowly standing. Ryan got behind him, pressing a gun into his back. Gavin let go of the tension in the bow, his arms beginning to hurt ridiculously badly with the strain. He’d probably need to save it in case they did end up fighting.

“So, what’s your name?” Geoff asked, his voice still quite cold.

“Jack.” Beardy replied, leading them down an aisle with the chemist down at the end. Gavin assumed that was where Jack was leading them.

Jack walked ahead of them, Ryan and Geoff’s guns still ready to fire. Gavin followed behind, watching as Jack stepped forward.

“Michael. Michael, come out from the room. Unarmed. Don’t bring Ray.” Jack said loudly, turning slightly as Ryan nudged him forward. Michael, or at least who Gavin assumed was Michael, stepped out with his hands up.

“And why aren’t we bringing Ray?” Geoff asked Jack, who glared a little. Gavin didn’t miss the way that Ryan’s eyes widened slightly, the way he mumbled “oh, fuck me.”

“He got shot in the leg, you assholes, we can’t really risk moving him too much yet.” Michael said it so harshly that Gavin almost had to shrink back a little. He resisted it, though, instead drawing his weapon to aim at Michael.

Michael glared fiercely at him and Gavin would’ve shrugged if he could’ve.

“Who the fuck are you? Legolas? Katniss?” Michael snickered a little at his own jokes, Gavin going to take a step forward to appear at least a little bit more threatening, but Geoff stopped him with a simple hand gesture.

“Look,” Jack began, turning to face the three of them, “we really only just need a place to relax and for Ray to heal. We can move, we just need to get in Austin.”

“Unfortunately, so do we.” Geoff shrugged a little at that, almost apologetically. Gavin knew he was anything but apologetic when he said it.

“Then why don’t we team up?” Jack asked, almost too quietly, seeming to realise just what he was asking halfway through asking it.

“Why the fuck would we? You’ve got Ray, the fucking Ray of Darkness, on your side. I highly fucking doubt a shot leg will stop him from blowing out our brains. All three of you are big fucking powerhouses we’ve heard of.” Geoff shook his head. Clearly, he didn’t agree with the idea.

Gavin, however…

“And you’ve also got yourself, Ryan fucking Haywood and, uh, the other guy over there who I’m sure is just as a deadly shot as both of you. If we team up, we’re a huge powerhouse of six.” Jack tried to reason. Gavin found himself agreeing. They were going in the same direction, after all, and what if something came at them that they needed all the big guns they could get?

Sure, Geoff, Ryan and Gavin were strong enough on their own… But having the extra six… Gavin really couldn’t help but feel a bit giddy at it.

Geoff shook his head. “Sorry, not taking that risk.”

He signalled for Ryan to move to the back room, and Gavin found his voice for the first time since they had seen Jack.

“Wait! Wait. Just wait a bloody minute, alright?” Gavin was releasing the grip on the bow, his arms beginning to shake a little from having to hold the bow for so long. Michael and Jack shot him odd glances, Gavin shaking them off as he turned to Geoff.

“What the fuck is it, Gav?” Geoff asked, casting a quick and annoyed glance to Gavin.

He had to think. _Think, think, think you bloody sausage!_

And then something caught his eye in the torchlight, and his eyes were widening. Perfect.

“Don’t you see them?” Gavin asked, trying to hide the small smile that was beginning to form. That was it, that was bloody perfect.

“What the fuck don’t I see, Gavin?” Geoff was getting irritated, and Gavin wondered if Geoff would swing around and aim the gun at him.

“The spores! The spores, Geoff. I didn’t notice them until now. They’re only light, only a little. But they’re here. Floating in the air. There’s Infected here, Geoff. If we team up, we could take them down easily.” Gavin reasoned, seeing the way Geoff’s eyes widen slightly and he looked into the light, searching.

He found them and he swore.

“Fuck. Fuck, alright. Fucking fine. Guess we’re not shooting each other, then. However, wouldn’t they of heard the glass shatter?” Geoff’s gun didn’t waver, no matter about his former statement.

Jack shook his head. “It’s likely they’re upstairs and they can’t find a way down. They’re stupid when it comes to stairs. However, they will figure it out soon enough. We should check it out, just in case.”

Geoff nodded, slowly lowering the gun. Ryan stopped from his walk to the back room.

“Gav, bring Ray out here.” Geoff ordered, Gavin nodding and moving to the back room. He nearly stopped when he saw Jack step out to stop him, but he seemed to think better of it and nodded at Gavin.

Gavin peeked around the entrance to see Ray, leaning against the wall with his leg propped up a stool. He stepped forward hesitantly, but gathered the courage to crouch next to Ray.

Strangely, Ray gave him a smile.

“Hey, it’s Gav, right? Or Gavin, I assume? I’m the so-called ‘Ray of Darkness’ or whatever, which I’m sure you knew. You mind lifting me up gently?” Ray’s voice was weak, obviously in a lot of pain.

Gavin’s torch went down to Ray’s leg, where he could see the blood that had stained his jeans. He tried to hide the gagging noise he made, but was pretty unsuccessful. Ray snickered a little and Gavin looked up to him and smile a little.

“Alright, think you can stand?” Gavin asked, tilting his head a little when Ray gave him an odd look. “What?”

“You- You’re British. Sorry, just never really heard anything but American accents. Just a bit weird. Here, just try and get me standing.” Ray held out a hand for Gavin to take, which he did.

“Quickly. Do it quickly. Like pulling off a band-aid, right?” Ray suddenly seemed a lot paler.

Gavin frowned, “but I like pulling them off slowly,” he told Ray, who laughed before Gavin pulled him up as quick as he could.

Immediately, the colour drained from Ray’s face and he began to sway on the spot. He was swearing as quietly as he could, and Gavin was quick to help support him as he swayed.

They stood there as Ray gathered his bearings, then nodded at Gavin in a signal to move. Gavin carefully pulled Ray’s leg off the stool and went back under to support him, but realised it wouldn’t work. Ray was still too dizzy, and there was no way he’d be able to put weight on his leg.

He then looked at Ray and thought of something.

“Piggy-back?” He asked Ray, already going to crouch down beneath him. Ray did it slowly, but he was able to get onto Gavin’s back. Gavin stood up, balancing himself and Ray before slowly walking out of the back room.

“You know, I much prefer being given the piggy-back.” Gavin mumbled, and Ray laughed at that. Gavin couldn’t help but feel a bit of heat rise to his cheeks. Ray had a pretty damn cute laugh.

“So does Michael, but I managed to make him my bitch for the day.” Ray mumbled, Gavin smiling a little at that. He was pretty sure that being able to get someone as fiery as Michael to give a piggy-back was a pretty big feat.

When he walked into the main room, Ryan was missing. The rest were crouched behind shelves. Jack, who was next to Geoff, gestured the pair over. Gavin made his way over.

“So you know when you said there were Infected? We sent Ryan upstairs to check it out. Just ducking down here just in case something happens. Here, give me Ray.” Jack said it so quietly that Gavin had to really concentrate to hear him. Gavin took a look at Geoff who nodded in affirmation, Gavin doing his best to hand Ray gently over to Jack who readjusted him into the fireman carry.

Ryan came back in as Gavin ducked behind a shelf with Michael. The man gave him another odd look (and goddamn Gavin was getting sick of getting those) before nodding at him.

Ryan came back in, immediately going to Geoff and whispering him the news. Geoff grumbled in annoyance, but Gavin was too far to hear what was being said.

Ryan came over to them and whispered it to Gavin.

“I didn’t get far. You know how we triggered the sound alarm? Turns out, we weren’t the only ones to hear. There’s a few Clickers, a few Runners and Stalkers.. There’s two sets of stairs and they’re caught on the other set, which is a lot further away than us and something’s blocking those stairs. Once they find the other staircase, though… Anyway, turns out, we just barely missed a Mycotoxin blast from a Bloater. He’s upstairs, and he’s blocking our only exit with the spores. There’s too many, if we go through there we risk infection ourselves.” Ryan said it so quietly and quickly Gavin almost missed it. ‘Mycotoxin… Nope, I’m calling them spore-bombs.’ Gavin thought to himself.

“What the fuck is the plan then?” Michael asked, checking over his shotgun.  
“We know molotovs are effective and Geoff’s got two on hand. Your bombs, Michael, might do a good bit of damage. We need to take out the Bloater first. He’s the biggest threat with spores.” Ryan mumbled back to Michael.

Geoff and Jack made their way over with Ray, who didn’t really look much better. But he did look determined.

“If we can get upstairs and get all of them downstairs, we have a good chance. Especially against the Bloater. But I don’t know how we’d do that.” Geoff mumbled.

Ray spoke up quietly. “If I could get upstairs, I can set up my rifle. It gives us a huge advantage.”

“Alright, we need a plan here. Gav, your job is to bring them down here. Create noise. Smash shit. Just guide them down here but away from the rest of us. Michael, you and I will get the closer ones off his ass. Then, once we have the Bloater down here, Jack- you carry Ray up and help him set up the rifle. Hopefully, the noise by Gav and us should keep the rest occupied. Ryan, you and Michael will then start blowing shit up. Try and get up the top as well. If we can get up the top and block them from coming up the stairs, we can lure them out with noises and kill them. Got it?” Geoff ordered, all of them nodding solemnly.

Gavin stood up, getting his bow out and letting his left arm hold it as he crept out. He turned off his torch light, sneaking along as best he could. If the Bloater heard him, it was likely it would send a huge spore-bomb down. While those things didn’t infect, it was a dangerous toxin and there was still a chance it could kill him. It was a chance Gavin wasn’t going to take.

He found his way to the noise trap, turning on the light once he was confident it couldn’t be seen from the second floor. There was a lot more spores in the air, but there weren’t enough to be a serious threat. He pulled his shirt over his face, just in case, trying to filter out the air. Man, if there was a gas mask, that’d be top.

He found some relatively alright glass bottles that hadn’t been too damaged, and he stored two of them carefully into his bag and he held the other. He crept along, wincing whenever the bottles in his bag crunched together. However, the bag muffled it and the Clickers hadn’t heard him. Yet.

He turned, seeing Geoff and Michael near the doorway, watching and waiting.

Gavin had no idea what he was going to do. If they couldn’t get down before hand, then how the hell were they meant to get down at all?  
And then he realised. He needed to go up.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart as he walked across the shops. It was a long walk, but Gavin doubted it wouldn’t be long enough for him when he had to sprint back down. He made a note of where the chemist was, trying to remember to run anywhere but there.

He made his way up the stairs, trying to stop his hands from shaking. It was fine. They were on the other side. He just had to lure the Runners, and hopefully the Clickers would follow. Then the Bloater.  
Right. The Bloater. He really had to keep an eye on him.

He gripped the bottle tighter, afraid it would slip out of his grasp. He kept the torch light on, hoping it would attract the Stalkers.  
When the Stalkers spotted it and began running with the Runners, Gavin realised the Clickers weren’t following as planned. He groaned, almost ready to run back down the stairs, but decided to go for it.

He smashed the bottle on the wall close to him and it shattered so loudly Gavin had no doubt they had heard it. He began sprinting, running back down as fast as he dared, his heart racing and his blood pumping. He just hoped that stupid bloody Bloater wouldn’t send some spores down his way from the top.

He made a mad dash across the shops, reaching into his bag as best he could to pull out the top of the bottle that stuck out. He grabbed it, smashing it on the floor a few meters in front of him just in case the Clickers got lost.  
He doubted it.  
His footsteps were the only noise he could hear. And then he heard it- the screaming of the Infected as they made their way down, the clicking of the Clickers. But the Bloater made no sound.

There was just a _whump!_ just behind him and he didn’t dare turn. He knew it was the spore-bomb. The Bloater had followed him. Great. Top.  
Now how the hell was he going to get them all to follow him without killing him?

He ran for his life, hoping Michael and Geoff weren’t too far. He knew that if they shot too close to the chemist, the Infected would hear the bullets and go after them. So it was up to Gavin to lure them so far that the rest could escape the Chemist.

The Runners were faster than he anticipated. He barely stayed ahead, almost stumbling over himself a couple times and Gavin wondered if it wasn’t just the Infected behind him. He wondered if Death was behind him, keeping up a leisurely stroll right beside Gavin and waiting, just waiting.

The thought creeped him out so he forced himself to focus on running. He made a grab for the last bottle and hauled it at the wall in front of him, hoping the sound would conceal any moves the rest were hopefully making from the chemist.

He began to wind down random paths, realising he was probably going to end up at a dead end sooner or later and then wind up dead. He kept to the more open paths after that thought, but found himself at a dead end with Target at the end. He cursed himself before sprinting in, his legs beginning to feel like jelly. But he couldn’t stop, he wouldn’t stop. He had to keep going.

He made his way to the back of the store, pushing over any glass shelves and throwing racks to the ground. The Runners were still right behind him, almost at arms reach and he wanted to scream as their incoherent mumblings were the only thing he could hear.The Runners didn’t run out of breath. They didn’t get weak legs or muscles. They would catch up to Gavin if he didn’t hurry up and make his way up the stairs.

He figured he had given the rest enough time, beginning to head back up to the front of the store. He jumped a check-out, hoping that would slow down a few. Maybe the Bloater would get stuck.

Another _whump_! right beside him and he forced himself to focus, coughing violently as the spores began to make their way down his throat.

He began to try and trace back down the path he had come, but he had forgotten which turns he had taken. There was a couple of signs above him, pointing him to the stairs.

But then he turned, and he realised he had turned at the wrong one. Shit, shit, shit, he was meant to turn at the next one. This was a dead end. There was only a small store at the end- not big enough to pull the same trick he had done in Target.

He began to panic, trying to see a way through the Infected. But they were swarming quicker than Gavin could collect his thoughts and he knew, he knew that he had messed up. He had taken one silly turn and here he was, about to go down.

He got his bow out and nocked an arrow, taking down the closest Runner with a shot to the neck. Instant death. The same to the one after that, and the one after that. But they were quicker than him, rushing closer.

He closer his eyes, too scared to see his end. He hoped it be quick. He hoped the others got out okay.

And then there was an explosion, and Gavin was opening his eyes and staring in shock at the gap of Infected that had suddenly appeared on the left of them.

“ _Run, you fucking moron, run_!”

He didn’t know who was yelling, he didn’t know if he yelled something back, but he was running, sprinting as he made his way through that narrow gap, the gap he needed.

One hand grabbed him and he yelled out something, but then there was a shot and the Infected went down and he was free, running to the next turn with the stairs. He made his way to them, stopping when he heard someone shouting above.  
Who was that?

“ _Shut the fucking doors_!” It was Geoff, it was Geoff shouting, meaning he and Michael had gotten to the top. He turned and did so, just as the wave of Infected came.

His hands were shaking. His legs were shaking. He wanted to collapse, he wanted to stop his heart from nearly exploding out of his chest.

But somehow, he made his way up the stairs. His legs were trembling, his whole body was trembling, and he was still violently coughing from that damn spore-bomb that had come too close to him.

He knocked weakly on the shut doors in front of him at the top of the stairs, too tired to push them open. They opened for him, and he saw someone in front of him before he collapsed, just barely being caught by whoever it was in front of him.

Things were shouted and someone else was dragging him, dragging him to a bench and sitting him down. His eyes focused as his breathing and heart slowed, and he noticed Ray sitting next to him, peering down at the rifle scope and taking shots. Gavin knew Ray didn’t miss any of his targets.  
When Ray went to reload, he saw Gavin and gave another grin, this one much more stronger than his one in the backroom of the chemist. Gavin’s heart did another flutter, and he blamed it on the running.  
Yeah, no more running. No more shops. He was tired of both of them.

“Nice running there. Really saved our asses. I mean, you nearly died at that wrong turn. We were yelling at you, but I don’t think you could’ve heard us. I don’t think you did, judging by the fact that you took the wrong turn. But then we saved your ass. That was Michael’s explosion that saved you, and Geoff’s shot to that Infected that got your shirt.” Ray was talking, babbling really, but Gavin didn’t mind at all.

When he was confident he could stand, he did so. He was slightly dizzy, but he didn’t let that stop him at all. He made his way to the balcony, walking to where the best angle was. Jack was throwing down glass and other objects from the balcony onto the floor, where Michael already had a bomb waiting to go. They were taking them down quickly. Effectively.

Gavin sure was glad they didn’t end up killing each other.

When his hands felt steady enough, he pulled out his bow and got ready to fire at the stragglers and help Geoff and Ray who were shooting the ones breaking the clan.  
And then the bombs stopped coming, Michael’s loud ‘fuck!’ echoing.

Ryan was quick to move, throwing down his own bomb and killing a few more dozen.

There was only a few left, now. Gavin took down a Clicker with an arrow to the head. They still hadn’t taken down the Bloater, though. It was beginning to notice that the things being thrown down weren’t the things he wanted.

So he started throwing the spore-bombs upwards. It hit an empty area, none of them affected, but then the next one was lucky. Gavin had just begun to move, trying to get a better angle, and almost ended up with a whole faceful of the Mycotoxin. He began to violently cough again, his head becoming cloudy and his vision becoming blurry. He cursed under his breath, knowing it definitely wasn’t safe to inhale so much of the toxin like he had. So he sat back, his legs folding out beneath him.

Yeah, definitely too much toxin.

“Geoff, molotov!” Jack shouted, and Gavin hoped they’d take down that bloody Bloater soon.

Gavin watched as the molotov arched upwards, the shot downwards and he heard something ignite. He hoped it was the Bloater, and judging by the ugly screaming, it was. Maybe even a few Clickers.

He heard more shots, tried crawling to edge and lying low as he watched through the glass balcony. The Bloater was putting out the fire, but Gavin could see most of its body armour had been destroyed. He watched as it got fired at from all directions, admiring the deadly accuracy of all five of those around him.

He probably wouldn’t be admiring it so much if any of it was turned on to him.

When he stopped coughing as much, he began to line up the next arrow. He let it fly, hitting the Bloater right in what would have been its right eye. But still, that didn’t send it down. Geoff sent another molotov down, setting it alight again, and the amount of shots ringing out was almost deafening. Gavin let another arrow fly into where the other eye would’ve been and it went down.

He wasn’t sure if it was his shot or not. But it went down, and that was all mattered. There were still two Clickers, but they were easily taken down.

It was silent.

It was silent and Gavin hated it. Minutes ago, he couldn’t even hear his own sneakers hitting the ground as a whole horde of Infected chased after him. He could hear gunshots. He couldn’t even hear the yelling that they were apparently doing above him.

But now it was silent. It was over.  
And somehow, they were all still alive.

Michael was the one to break the silence.

“Fuck yes, that’s how you do it bitches!” His laughter began to infect the rest of them as well, and they were all laughing. If Gavin was laughing with relief, disbelief or sheer delusion he wasn’t sure, and he didn’t care.

They began to congratulate each other, the earlier tension dissolving instantly. The relief of winning the battle was just overwhelming.

Ryan had searched around again as the rest of the sat around Ray, making sure he didn’t move and that they all went to him.

“You’re not going to believe it.” He said when he got back, and if Gavin could see past the bandana, he was sure he’d see a grin.

“What?” Geoff asked, getting up already.

“Downstairs. There’s a furniture store. With beds.”

And that sounded perfect to Gavin. They made their way downstairs, Jack and Ryan helping Ray to get down the stairs. Gavin nearly fell down the stairs a few times, only stopped by Geoff who kept a steady hand on him.

“Easy there, buddy.” He told him, guiding him down and opening the bottom doors of the stairs.

Gavin had hated his old shopping center. It was too big, too silent. He had hidden away in a small corner, trying to escape the eeriness of the deserted shopping center. But with the other five, it seemed alright. Even at night, it didn’t freak him out, he didn’t want to find a small store. He felt safer.

Ray had mumbled something to his helpers who had nodded, setting him down near the front of the furniture store where the rest waited. They had walked off, leaving Gavin, Ray, Michael and Geoff alone.

Geoff and Michael helped Ray over to a bed. It wasn’t a big store- there was only two beds on display and a few couches and a few other random pieces. But it was enough.

Ray got one bed, the single bed, so Gavin was quick to claim the other, which was a queen. He took one side, quick to lay down. Even after having experienced such an adrenaline rush, he had never been so ready to collapse and go to sleep. He was tired, so tired, and the mattress was just way too good to ignore.

Ryan and Jack came back, setting something down next to Ray’s bed. A weight dipped down next to Gavin, someone getting onto the other side, but he didn’t bother to open his eyes and look. Soon, he was fast asleep.

The nightmare was the worst he had had in a while.  
It started the same as when the three of them: himself, Ryan and Geoff, had stepped into the shopping center. But the dream would change, show him different outcomes. The noise trap became an explosion. Geoff had shot Jack and Michael. Ray had shot Gavin. Michael had blown them all up, and then Ryan did. He wasn’t fast enough to escape the Infected. The Runners got him and bit him. The Clickers got him and tore open his throat. The Bloater got him and ripped his jaw apart. They had heard Geoff and Michael downstairs. The others hadn’t made it up in time. Michael hadn’t used the explosion so that Gavin could escape.  
Death. It was all just death.

But it wasn’t real. It wasn’t.  
He repeated that to himself when he awoke, shivering despite the heat up against him, his hands trembling and his hair stuck to his forehead due to the sweats. He turned, seeing the figure pressed up against him. But it wasn’t light enough to see who. He could see outlines on the couches the longer he stared.

He told himself it wasn’t real, one last time, that they were fine and that he was fine before he fell back asleep.  
Thankfully, he couldn’t remember the dreams when he woke up again.

It was daylight. It was streaming through the top of the shopping center, catching the spores that still drifted through the air. The spores wouldn’t really manifest for a few days, but then it would really become a problem, especially because of the Bloater.

When he turned, the person next to him was no longer there. In fact, no one was in the small furniture store. He got up, his head still feeling cloudy and his throat still burned, but he was pretty sure the spores would be alright to deal with.

He hadn’t even taken his shoes off when he got onto the display bed, so he was ready to start moving the second he got up. So he did, and immediately he caught the delicious smell of something cooking and his stomach was rumbling and he was nearly running to the source of smell, finding all five of the other men in the middle of the shops, sitting on one of the tables in the food court.

In the middle of them were pots of food, and Gavin was grinning, his feet running towards the food.

Choruses of ‘good morning’ greeted him and he managed to mumble something that sort of sounded like it back between mouthfuls of food. Michael shuffled his chair over a little for Gavin to have more room, and once he got through his first round of warm baked beans he listened in on the conversation.

“Seriously Ryan, how you got these gas heaters working is beyond me, but you’re a fucking angel or something.” Geoff marveled, all of them humming in agreement.  
Jack was nudging Ray, who looked at him a little tiredly. Gavin decided to listen in.  
“That leg won’t heal up for a while. Your lack of sleep, nutrition and water is seriously fucking up your healing rate. The spores aren’t doing any favours. So take it easy, alright?” Jack said quietly, Ray nodding in response.

Gavin noticed the objects beside Ray and realised they were crutches, figuring they must have been what Jack and Ryan had gone to fetch in the chemist.

“Gav?” Geoff asked, Gavin turning to him, “how you holding up?” Geoff asked.

Gavin shrugged. “Tired and sore. My legs bloody hurt and so does my throat and chest. Otherwise, I’m top.” He replied, Geoff nodding in satisfaction.

“We could probably get something at the chemist for you. But we’ve all decided to go check out the clothing stores as well.” Ryan chimed in, Gavin only just realising that he had taken off the bandana and was staring at the slight scruff of a beard on his chin.

And it was really on then that it kicked in that Gavin was surrounded by dirty, mostly unshaven but very attractive men.

Thankfully, he was distracted by that thought as Jack offered to check out the chemist with him. Gavin got up, reluctant to leave the food, but he knew he probably wouldn’t be able to stomach any more anyway. Geoff gave him an odd look, then directed a glare at Jack and immediately Gavin knew that if anything happened to himself, then Jack probably wouldn’t be alive for much longer after that.

It didn’t affect Jack much, though, who simply glared back and indicated a glance to Ray and Michael. Right, same applied to Geoff then with the other two lads. Gavin followed Jack through the shopping center to the chemist, his legs hurting with every step.

They got there eventually, Gavin sitting down on the floor while he left Jack to the searching. He wasn’t at all bothered to search or walk for anything.

“Ah, _fuck_.” Jack suddenly said, making Gavin snap up in alert.

“What?” Gavin asked, making a move to get up before Jack sheepishly popped his head up over the racks.

“I just forgot to change Ray’s bandages. I’ll do that later, though. Alright, think we got the stuff. Can you swallow a tablet dry?” Jack appeared around the corner, a packet in his hand.

Gavin was frowning. “I haven’t even swallowed a tablet before.” He admitted, looking at the small tablets in the foil.

Jack frowned right back. “Well, I take that as a no. Here, have it with your water. Also, rub this cream stuff on your legs, should help with the muscles. I don’t think I’d even be able to walk for a week if I ran as much as you did.” Jack handed him the foil and gel and he took them gratefully.

He took the pill, almost taking a whole two minutes to down the stupid thing. It just wouldn’t go down. Eventually, though, Jack managed to coax him into swallowing and he did it, gagging a little when he felt it go down.

He took the gel for later, reminding himself to apply it before they got the new clothes.

Jack and Gavin began to make their way around, following the sounds of the laughter and conversation upstairs.

“You know, if we’re sneaky, we could probably see at least one of them naked.” Jack mumbled, Gavin stopping and staring at Jack in wide-eyed shock.

Jack just laughed, leaving Gavin to stand there in disbelief before he got over it, having to do an odd sort of skip to catch up to Jack, who was grinning ridiculously widely.

Gavin took it up as a challenge. He managed to sneak into one of the stores, where he could tell at least one person was. He saw the change rooms and grinned, managing to silently make his way next to the closed stall.

If it was Ryan, he was probably a dead man. Or Geoff, even, but considering that man didn’t really care much for privacy anyway… Nope, probably just Ryan or Michael. Ray would probably be needing help, so he was pretty sure it wasn’t Ray.

He managed to get up over the stall, peeking down and immediately flushing with embarrassment when Michael, now below him, was down to his boxers and attempting to pull on some jeans. His head whipped up and he caught Gavin’s staring, and immediately broke out into a grin.

“You little shit, you can be fucking sneaky when you want to,” Michael scolded, but there was a playful edge to his voice, “also, like what you see?” Michael stood up, just barely avoiding tripping in the jeans, making some very ridiculous poses that had Gavin bursting out laughing, losing his balance and falling from the top and onto the floor.

His breath was knocked out from him and returned in hacking coughs, Michael peeking his head out to check if he was okay. When Gavin gave the thumbs up, Michael just burst out into laughter again.

“You’re a fucking idiot. Are they all this stupid in England?” He teased, Gavin immediately going to defend himself from the comment. Michael waved him off.

“Go check in with Geoff. He said he wanted to see you.” Michael told him, Gavin getting up and checking into the next clothing store, where Geoff was sprawled across a couch.

He peeked into Geoff’s vision, the man rolling his eyes and going for a lazy swing towards Gavin who dodged it pretty easily.

“Ray’s in there, getting changed. Probably getting another fucking hoodie despite this heat. Anyway, I noticed there’s some clothes over there you may like.” Geoff said, Gavin nodding and going over to inspect the clothes.

He found a pair of shorts that were relatively close to his remembered size, some new briefs and a purple shirt.  
Geoff raised an eyebrow at the shirt, pointing at it.

“Another bright colour? What’s with you and all these fucking bright colours?” Geoff asked as Gavin stepped into the change room. As he stepped out of his jeans, he replied.

“So you don’t lose me. I lose myself a lot. So you can find me easily with bright clothes.” Gavin explained, hearing Ray mumble something like “self-burn”, but he sounded pretty occupied with something else.

He felt around for the gel in the pocket of his backpack and applied it to his legs, allowing it to dry a little before he put on the pair of shorts.  
The shorts were too loose. He knew it immediately, the way they were already dropping off his hips and he frowned. Surely, they were the same size as his last pair?

He opened the curtain, meeting Geoff’s stare who looked at the shorts with confusion.

“Those are like ten sizes too big, buddy. Here, I’ll go get a smaller pair.” Geoff got up from the couch and over to the shorts section. Gavin tried keeping a hold of his pants by gripping them at the top with his left hand.

“They’re the same size as my other shorts,” Gavin told him, “I don’t understand. It might be the belt holding up the last pair… but…”

“But they definitely weren’t that baggy. Yeah, sizing must be different for different brands. Anyway, here’s another two pairs, try these on.” Geoff tossed him the pairs of shorts, Gavin nearly falling over in an attempt to catch them. Geoff mumbled something before shutting Gavin’s curtain and asking if Ray needed help.

“Oh, Ray, I nearly forgot. Jack needs to change the bandages,” Gavin said, while pulling on the first pair of shorts.

“Ah, Ryan already did that for me. Changing clothes, however, is a whole new story.” Ray grumbled, and Gavin wondered just how much Ray was suffering about having to put on the clothes.

The second pair were smaller, but they fit better. Gavin still stored the other pair and his old pair in his backpack. He even added another spare pair of briefs.

When he stepped out, Geoff nodded, but there was concern on his face. Gavin looked at him in confusion, about to ask about it, before Ray stepped out. He was wearing a grey shirt and a new pair of shorts, and Gavin had no doubt he had probably also stored a hoodie in his backpack.

Geoff looked at the both of them and shook his head.  
“I wonder which one of you resembles a stick more.” He marvelled, the comment making both Ray and Gavin look at each other then down at themselves.

Sure, Gavin was pretty skinny, but he had been that way since he was a kid. He just didn’t put on weight. However, the loss of food was probably not helping him gain weight at all. Ray wasn’t much better, also quite skinny and they both just shrugged, stepping out of the store.

They walked into another store where Ryan and Jack were.

“Hey, Jack and Ryan, c’mere. Who do you reckon is closer into evolving into a stick out of these two dickheads?” Geoff asked, gesturing to Ray and Gavin who stood there sheepishly as Ryan and Jack looked them over.

“I think they’re both pretty close.” Jack finally answered, shaking his head slightly before going back to looking at clothes. Ryan seemed to go with that before turning around, an idea having apparently struck him.

Gavin was a little worried that, truthfully.

“Gav, jump onto my back.” Ryan ordered, Gavin giving him the oddest look he could muster before shrugging and doing so. He always liked climbing on top of things, or people, so it suited him fine.

Ryan ‘hmm’ed when Gavin got off, then told Ray to do the same. It was a little harder for him to get up, though, but with Ryan and Gavin’s help he did it.

Ryan considered a few moments before answering.

“Gav, by like a few grams. If a strong enough wind picked up, Gavin would go first and Ray wouldn’t be too far behind.” Ryan told them, smirking when Gavin went to defend himself.

Ray just looked at Gavin, then he grinned and Gavin was grinning back even though he didn’t know why.

“Gav, if we ever get caught, we could fly away or squeeze between the narrowest spaces while all their fat asses are left behind. I think that sounds good, don’t you?” Ray joked, Gavin laughing and nodding in agreement.

They eventually all met back up with their newer clothes and even bigger smiles. They made their way to downstairs, Gavin trying to climb onto Geoff in an attempt to see how high he could get. He got up to the man’s shoulders before toppling over, being caught by Jack who just rolled his eyes.

It was a game Gavin definitely planned on continuing. He tried it on Michael, who easily got him onto his shoulders, and Gavin was laughing giddily as Michael attempted to balance him.

When Michael took off running, Gavin attempting to hold on for dear life, it was probably the most fun he had had in a very long time. When Michael had stumbled, sending both of them to the ground, it took a long, long time for the laughter to subside.

Ryan, for security measures, along with Gavin and Michael, began to set up rigged explosives at the doors and windows. Just in case. They all seemed to collectively get the idea that there was someone after each of them, but none of them ever seemed to share the story.

When night began to creep in, they sat around a small fire that Jack had managed to create and they warmed their hands as the chill began to settle in. They had dragged out the mattresses and couches to where the fire was, all of them agreeing with it, somehow just feeling more secure out in the open area in the middle of the shopping center than in a small little furniture shop. It even felt right for Gavin.

Michael had fallen asleep on one side of the queen bed, and Ryan had taken up a couch. Ray was asleep on the single again. Just as Gavin was on the very edge of sleep, on his side of the queen mattress, Geoff asked a question that brought Gavin back to the world of alertness if only for a few moments.

“So, what are you going to do after this, Jack?” Geoff asked quietly, only just barely heard over the crackling of the fire in between them all.

“I’m not sure. I don’t want to split Michael and Ray up from you guys. I think we really do work better when we’re all together. And we’re all headed to Austin, so it’d make sense for us to stay together, I say.” Jack replied just as quietly.

He only just stayed enough to hear Geoff hum thoughtfully before he was asleep.

* * *

(RAY)

His leg really fucking hurt.

He didn’t care if it was just a graze. He had suffered worse, he knew, but it still really fucking hurt and Ray was getting tired of it hurting like such a bitch. Wasn’t anything he could do about it, Jack had said, he just had to sleep and rest up and clean the wound.

Well sleep was a little hard to grasp when nightmares were the only things he could ever really get from sleep and he always woke up with a white hot spike of pain in his leg where he had been shot. Maybe he had jostled it too much in his sleep. Either way, he was now awake in the middle of the night or early morning and all he wanted to do was sleep, thank you.

But sleep wasn’t coming, and he just admitted to himself that he’d just have to deal with it- it would just take his leg a little longer to heal as well, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

He reached over for his glasses on the bedside table that was next to the display bed he was lying on, putting them on and waiting for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. He still marveled at the fact that somehow they had remain unbroken. He was pretty sure he needed to upgrade the vision on them though. Maybe if he could find an optometrist shop… Yeah, yeah he’d go look around himself for one. He hadn’t really had the chance to look around.

He slid his backpack on and swung his body around, getting the crutches underneath him. He bit his lip when he had to move his leg in an attempt to keep any sounds of pain quiet. His display bed was near the entrance of the shop, so it was only a short distance that he had to hop. When he got far enough from the furniture shop, he grabbed the torch in his backpack.

They had managed to find some torches in a store and now all of them had some with extra batteries. He turned his on, holding it in his left hand where he also was holding the crutches. He reminded himself to get Gavin to teach him how to strap it on his backpack handles.

He hobbled along on the crutches for a while, having no success in finding an optometrist. He avoided the spore areas as much as he could, taking extra care to go around any bodies that weren’t burned to death from the molotovs.

As he made his way slowly up the stairs, he found himself in awe of Gavin’s running. He hated the Infected, hated getting near them, and he probably would’ve pissed himself if so many had been chasing him so closely. He prefered the higher points, where he could use the rifle, where the Infected weren’t smart enough to come up to and he could deal with them without getting close.

He walked around the second story for a little, managing to find the shop he needed and smiling with relief when he got to it. He searched around the racks, trying on different glasses and beginning to realise just how badly he needed to change his glasses.

He finally found a pair that cleared his vision right up and didn’t look half bad with the black frames, and he made his way out of the store but was suddenly blinded by the light being turned on right in front of him.

His heart was racing and he realised just how stupid he was for coming up on crutches- if he went for his rifle, he would have to drop a crutch and he’d probably just end up falling over. Damn it, why hadn’t he done this at day time when someone could’ve kept guard?

And then he remembered that there was someone always taking guard, except for himself, and he relaxed a little when the light was taken off him and he could see Ryan. Right, of course, it was Ryan’s turn. The fucker had probably been following him the whole time.

Ryan smiled a little at him and Ray smiled uneasily back at him. Ever since their first encounter, Ray had definitely been unnerved by the guy. They were on the same team for now, sure, and the lack of his skull bandana made him a little less scary, but he didn’t forget just how deadly Ryan’s shots were when it came to accuracy. His quick thinking when Michael had run out of explosives was admirable, but it was also pretty fucking scary.

“So, what’cha doing, Ray?” Ryan asked, and Ray found his stupid heart skipping and goddamnit, he was terrified of the guy, so why the hell did his heart keep doing that?

“Oh, y’know, trying not to go blind. You?” Ray replied as nonchalantly as he could, one hand letting go of the crutch that supported his good leg side to lean against his body and he tapped his new glasses.

“Following you, obviously. Never know what scary dangers there are out there.” Ryan answered, turning and beginning to walk. For some stupid reason, Ray followed him.

“Like the six of us, you mean?”

“Yeah, sure. We’re certainly a danger to each other, aren’t we?” Ryan gave a glance over his shoulder to Ray, who was pretty taken aback from the words.

“What do you mean?” Ray asked, looking around and realising that he and Ryan weren’t walking back down the stairs. By the way Ryan said it, he was sure Ryan didn’t mean it in such an obvious way.

“Well the obvious one is that we’re all pretty deadly shots, which could end badly if one of us turned on each other. There’s also that other thing as well. I mean, we care about each other. Can’t you see it? That’s a danger. When you care about someone, you always seem to find yourself in more dangerous situations because of them, risking your own life for theirs.” Ryan told him, before stopping in front of him and turning to the store on his left.

Ray couldn’t really reply to it. He found himself agreeing. He definitely cared about the two idiots that had reeled him into joining them with warm smiles and Michael’s flirty jokes and tins of fruit. And Geoff? He was just as charming, but just as deadly as well. Gavin had made him smile and laugh a lot more, especially when he could feel the conversation around the others turn into something darker. And what the hell was with his heart doing that stupid skip thing around all of them, even Ryan?

He was too tired to really give a shit to think further on it and brushed it from mind, instead focusing on the store Ryan had stopped in front of him.

It was an arcade. A small one, sure, but Ray was lighting up with excitement and immediately rushing in as fast as he could with the crutches. The power was long gone and the games hadn’t been played in a long time, he knew, but he could just imagine them all working and it was enough for a childish wonder to come back to him.

“Jack and I came across it when we looked around. We haven’t shown the others yet, we were going to today. But I figured you might want a look first.” Ryan told him, a small smile on his face as he watched Ray hobble back and forth between the machines.

He stopped at a DDR Dance Pad, looking at it with longing. He turned to Ryan, a huge grin on his face. “If I didn’t have these crutches, I would be up there dancing, even without the game working. I could beat all your sorry asses at it.” Ray told him, desperately wishing that somehow the power could come back on. He doubted, though, that any generator would have enough power to fire it up.

Ryan laughed, walking over. “Oh yeah? I don’t know, I was pretty deadly on these things.” Ryan joked, and Ray turned to him with a deadpan look.

“That was a Michael joke. That was such a Michael joke, I can’t believe you just said it. Jesus Christ, Ryan, you need to fucking stay away from Michael,” Ray rolled his eyes.  
“Oh, so Michael does those jokes on you as well?” Ryan asked, folding his arms and Ray laughed.

“He does them on fucking everyone, dude,” Ray replied, “but just to be clear, he started doing them on me before you.”

Ryan shook his head slightly before turning and inspecting some of the other games. “Come on,” He told Ray, “we can look later with all the others in the morning. My shift is nearly over, I think, anyway.”

Ray reluctantly agreed and they went back downstairs, Ray managing to get to sleep somehow quickly, and having no nightmares whatsoever. It was definitely good sleep, something he hadn’t had in a while, and he woke up feeling better than he had in a long time, even with his leg still hurting.

After breakfast, they made the collective decision to move out of the shopping center the same day. The spores were beginning to really come in, and Gavin’s coughing was becoming a bit of a worry. However, Ryan stood up and told them all to follow him before they left.

As expected, he took them to the arcade he had shown Ray earlier that morning. The excitement on all their faces had made the second look at the arcade even better than the first, Gavin excitedly jumping from game to game with Michael going to the shooting ones and making “pew pew” noises. Geoff joined in on that one.

Ray found himself back over at the DDR dance pad machine and cursed that damn tank for nicking his leg. Geoff came over, looking at it with some sort of… what was that, nostalgia?

“You know, I knew a friend who loved these things. He was a machine on them, it was amazing to watch. We were all pretty sure he was a robot, really, the guy barely slept and was just constantly moving around and doing stuff.” Geoff explained, and Ray looked back at the dance pad and nodded.

“You used to be with a group?” Ray asked, a little scared to ask the question, because he knew it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to bring up anything painful, but his curiousity was just too nagging.

Geoff sighed. “Yeah, they helped me take down that quarantine zone. The Military there were too vicious, they just began shooting anyone they felt like. They zone was abandoned, but I lost the group somewhere in the firefight and haven’t found them since.”

Ray’s eyebrows furrowed. “Wait, so that’s the one in the story, right? The one where they say you took it down single-handedly?”

Geoff laughed, “Wasn’t just me. Burnie was the one behind that one, I just shot a lot of guys. I’m sure you know a lot about stories being lies, right? There’s some I’ve heard about you that aren’t even possible. I mean, you’re definitely not half-infected. There’s no bite marks on you, first of all.”

Ray’s jaw dropped, and he was about to ask how Geoff knew that, but the man grinned mischievously. “I took a peek when you were changing, sorry,” Geoff told him and Ray knew he was definitely not at all sorry, “unless you got bitten on your dick or ass, you’re not bit. And I don’t think you were a Firefly, or a Hunter. And look at you, you’re not full of hatred, and I see how they got the name Ray of Darkness, but your laugh really should have you named as Ray of sunshine. See? Can’t believe all the stories.”

Ray could feel the stupid heat rising to his cheeks and he told his dick to calm the fuck down, because liking all six of these guys was probably going to be his downfall. While Michael was definitely gay (he still wasn’t over that hair joke) and flirtingly joked with all of them, he wasn’t too sure about the others, and if he began to get feelings and they didn’t return them? Yeah no, he was not going through that. So he told his heart to chill the fuck out.

They all dicked around for a while in the arcade, but eventually they all stopped and decided to give the shops one last run-down before they had to leave. There wasn’t really all that interesting, so Ray just hung near the back with Gavin.

When they got back down to the first level, Gavin’s coughing picked up again and Ray turned to him in worry.

“You alright man?” He asked, Gavin just brushing him off with a grin.  
“Yeah, just the damn spore-bombs going off from when I was running. They’re still in the air, I guess. Just an annoying cough, don’t worry about me. You, otherwise...” Gavin said, flashing a look down at Ray’s leg and Ray just sort of gave him a ‘really, dude?’ look.

“Seriously, spore-bombs? You mean the Mycotoxin shit it throws?” Ray avoided anything about his leg and directed it back to Gavin.  
“Yeah yeah, same thing,” Gavin waved him off.  
“You really have a thing for killing the English language, don’t you?”  
“Oi, what does that mean?”  
“Well, spore-bombs, top, what are some of those other insults you throw around again? Spaff, sausage, mong?” Ray teased, laughing when Gavin pouted.  
“You’re a right prick, Ray.” Gavin mumbled, but it only made Ray laugh even more.

They all checked their supplies one last time, before heading over to one of the back entrances. Geoff explained that the spores near the entrance were just way too overwhelming, so they’d have to take down the boards on one of the other doors or windows and get out that way.

The others helped Ray get out of the door, even though his leg was definitely healing and feeling a lot better. He still couldn’t properly walk and he was getting really good on the crutches, so he decided to keep them. Besides, seeing Gavin try them and fall over on his ass was one of the best things.

Using Ryan’s directions, with a bit of input from Ray, they set out on the best path for Austin.

And then it all, of course, went to shit. Jack seemed to hear it first, swearing loudly and signalling them all to hide. There weren’t exactly any places to hide, but they managed to find some sort of small storage shed. They were still relatively close to the shops, but they couldn’t go back in and hide.

The stupid fucking tank had followed them. Or it just coincidentally ended up at the shopping center to take a look around. Either way, it was back near them and they would definitely find them or see them if they moved.

“Fuck, we gotta distract them,” Geoff said, watching as it approached and one of the guys in it got out to look inside. The tank circled around, and it was coming closer to them.

“Split up. We have to split up. Ray won’t be able to get away from it, so we need to split up and divert their attention.” Michael advised and Ray was immediately feeling guilty over being the liability.

“Michael and I got our explosives restocked, we can team up to distract them that way. Geoff, your molotovs would probably be pretty useful as well. Gav, Jack, you’re working to protect Ray,” Ryan said, “but we need a place to meet up.”

“I don’t know anything about Austin,” Gavin mumbled, and suddenly Ray got an idea.

“Ryan, you still remember that quarantine zone we first met up in?” At Ryan’s nod, Ray continued, “Great, so you lead your team there and I’ll get mine there. Shouldn’t take more than a day, but problems can arise. We have two days to meet up, and if one team doesn’t make it, the other moves. Got it?”

Everyone nodded, Geoff stepping up to take control again and instruct them all on what was happening. Michael would set off the first explosion, close to the shops but far enough so that Ray’s group could get away. If the tank saw them, Ryan would step in with another explosion. Geoff then said to wing it from there, because plans never worked anyway, and they all had to agree with that.

When the tank came close, Michael stepped out- just out of view of the tank, and threw the first explosion as far as he could. Ryan and Geoff stepped forward for the back-up, and gestured Ray to get moving once the tank moved.

When they started moving, he heard the bullets. But then they were muffled out by another explosion from Ryan, and it took everything Ray had not to turn back and help or even look.

If he looked, he didn’t think his will to keep going forward, to abandon the others, would hold out. There was already enough guilt wearing him down, guilt that he was the main reason they were splitting up, guilt that he was the liability and was just fucking walking away from the other three who were in very, very dangerous firing lines.

Fuck, he hated not being able to help.

They had gotten away safely, though, and Ray began to calculate the route to the quarantine zone. He was almost certain of where it was- and, if he did get lost, there were usually signs pointing the population to the direction of it.

“They’ll have to take a while to loop back around,” Jack said, “if they couldn’t take out the tank, they’d need to escape but make sure the tank isn’t following them. They’re probably going to be a whole half day behind us. Ryan and Michael’s explosives aren’t strong enough to take down the tank, but they will probably figure something out. Geoff’s a tactical genius, after all.”

Ray and Gavin nodded, both of them remaining silent. All traces of their humour had gone, and while it was almost awkward, Ray knew Gavin just felt a little uneasy. Couldn’t have been easy for him to leave behind the two guys he had been travelling with.

Finally, Gavin spoke up, “Geoff and Ryan will be fine, both of them working together is a good combo. Ryan by himself is a bloody madman, but it seems to work well with Geoff. Michael’s just as crazy with the explosives, so I’m pretty sure they’ll be unstoppable together. Anyway, can we stop for a bit? My legs are killing me.”

They did so, taking rest at the front of some sort of house. They were sticking to the smaller streets, the ones with small alleys, hoping to use them for quick escapes if anything did come up.

Jack then smiled suddenly, looking right at Gavin who caught on to the look, giving Jack a sharp “what the bloody hell are you smiling at?”

Jack kept the smile up, “You know, I think even if Geoff got killed he’d probably forget to die, he’d be too damn worried about you.”

Gavin tilted his head a little. “Worried?”

“Yeah, he’s been fussing over that cough, which seems to have cleared up at least. He wouldn’t want to admit it to you, of course, but I think we all can see it. Especially on your, uh, run. He grew extremely irritable.” Jack explained.  
Ray found himself agreeing. When Gavin had been running, Geoff had been shouting the loudest and swearing the loudest whenever Gavin messed up or disappeared from their sights.

“Oh, like you and Ryan are any bloody better with Ray,” Gavin retaliated and Ray found himself staring in confusion.  
“You became a bloody mother hen with Ray! And Ryan didn’t miss an opportunity to help out Ray, either.” Gavin continued.

Jack just laughed and shrugged and Ray really didn’t know what to think of the answer. It was weird enough to think of himself being teamed up with five other guys, but for them to actually care about him? Yeah, definitely weird. Not… unwelcome, but definitely strange as hell.

They began walking again in silence, Jack seeming to pick up on the signs for the zone and directing them that way. Ray had time to reflect on some more things. Like, for instance, just how much he realised he cared about the others.

He definitely cared a lot for Jack. After all, Jack had offered him tin fruit and had accepted him with pretty wide open arms despite Ray’s reputation. He really, really was grateful for that. And Gavin was one of the funniest thing that had ever happened to him- the guy was definitely a good laugh, but he was just as brave and cute, and Ray really hoped he’d never lose either of them. And then there was Michael- fiery, hot-tempered Michael, with a gorgeous smile and fucking killer laugh that had lured Ray right in. And Geoff? Geoff was fucking just as good. He hadn’t really had much time to talk to Geoff, but he definitely admired the man. And with Ryan, well, his heart always just did that stupid jump skip thing whenever he talked and honestly yeah, Ray definitely cared about the men.  
He cared. A lot.

He found himself thinking back to the conversation with Ryan, realising his thoughts were pretty much running along the same track. Yeah, he cared about the men, but was it more than that? How the fuck could he even think of that with five guys?

He found himself at a wall there, sort of like last time, and he swore mentally at himself before focusing back onto walking.

They still had a lot of walking to go, after all, even though Ray was more or less hopping along. He just hoped the others were walking close behind them as well.

They settled down for a night in a house, taking turns at watch, and there still wasn’t a sign of the other group, but that was expected. After all, they could be resting in one of the many houses around. Possibly one that they had passed a while ago. They could even be on the other side in a whole other suburb. They had no way of knowing, so it was useless trying to look out for them.

When it came to morning, they began walking after a light breakfast. Ray’s water bottle was nearly empty and he wondered if he’d be able to refill it at a house or something. Maybe that quarantine zone still had some rations…

He’d find out soon enough, anyway. The walking to the quarantine zone took a little longer than when he had walked away from it, but then again he wasn’t on crutches before, and holy shit his arms and underarms were seriously beginning to hurt from having to hold up the stupid things.

They could see the zone in the very close distance and Ray found himself breathing with relief. Hopefully, they’d be able to settle down and just relax until the other three came in.

From the side they were currently on, there wasn’t a tree that Ray or Gavin could scale to see over unlike the other side. It was only the fence on their side and Ray only just began to think of the possibility that maybe the zone wasn’t the best idea.

Still, it seemed abandoned and left alone, so he hoped for the best. They climbed up a slight hill, where they could see a bit over the fence, and Ray looked over the zone. Nothing different, nothing out of pl-  
Wait.

“Oh, _shit_ ,” he muttered, knowing very well that Gavin and Jack just sent each other very alarmed looks, “the weapon pile, they moved the fucking weapon pile. Ryan and I didn’t touch it, meaning tha-”

“Hello.” A voice said coldly from behind them, and Ray was trying to turn as and grab out his weapon, hoping he’d be able to take out the unfamiliar voice.

“Ah, ah, wouldn’t do that. Drop your arms. Drop your fucking arms. Thank you, was that so hard? No. Now fucking turn around with your hands up. Yes, I know I just said drop them, but raise them up this fucking second and turn.” The new voice instructed harshly.

Ray swore under his breath, hands going up but keeping his elbows down to keep the crutches on his sides. He turned as best he could, seeing the classic hunter with a rifle aimed right at them. It was pointed right at Gavin’s throat, who was in the middle of both Jack and Ray.

“We’re moving down this hill, got it? Then we’re entering that little quarantine zone where I’m going to show you to my buddies, and we’re going to have a little fun. Got that? Good. Now, fucking move it.”

They didn’t have much of a choice, and slowly, slowly, they made their way down, following the Hunter who kept the rifle pointed at them. Ray couldn’t help but be crushed by guilt again. He had chosen the location, he had just lead Jack and Gavin and possibly the others into a trap.

Yeah, maybe Ryan was right, maybe caring really was just too much of a liability. However, he was way too far in now, so he told that voice in his head to shut the fuck up and told it to begin working towards finding a way out of the mess.

* * *

(GEOFF)

The fucking tank was really getting on Geoff's nerves.  
  
Michael's explosion had worked- the tank had turned away from their hiding spot and went to investigate. He hoped that maybe the guy that was investigating the shopping center went down as well.  
Unfortunately, he had no such luck.  
Michael had stepped out just a little too far and they caught sight of him, bullets instantly raining around them and they ducked behind the shed again. Ryan threw another explosion as Geoff checked back, smiling to himself when the other three were escaping.

And then Jack looked back.

He could see it, he could see that way how the man wanted to run back and help, and he had no doubts the other two felt the same way. Geoff winked at Jack for reassurance and Jack smiled, mouthing the words "see you later, asshole". Geoff just nodded, having to turn back to the current fight.

Michael yelled out a warning, and Geoff watched as the molotov soared through the air, thrown from the guy who had unfortunately not blown up from Michael's explosive. They all ran as far as the could before the molotov exploded right next to them, the heat instantly erupting next to Geoff and he wondered if the hairs on his arms would be singed.

They had managed to just get out of the radius of the molotov, but Geoff knew there would be more coming,

Then a crazy, stupid idea struck him and he wondered if Burnie managed to make his way into Geoff's conscience. Still, it was the only plan they had, so Geoff decided to go with it.

"The guy firing the molotovs is outside the tank, right?" Geoff asked the other two, who were getting their next explosives ready. Michael took a quick look then nodded at Geoff.

"Right, we need to get him inside the tank. That brief, one second opening, might be the only chance we have of destroying the tank. If we could get an explosive in there, right when it opens for the guy, we could blow it.” Geoff said, Ryan and Michael looking at him with slight disbelief, but nodded.

And that was it. They were now following Geoff’s plan that could possibly get them killed or get the tank blown up. Great. If only someone else actually had a better idea.

“Alright, so I guess we just gotta make it too dangerous for the guy to stay outside the tank. Shouldn’t be too hard,” Ryan said, already aiming his next explosive for the guy wandering around. Michael followed his lead, throwing the explosive close to the guy, but just enough to make sure he wasn’t actually blown up.

They sure as hell wouldn’t be opening the tank for a body, and it would only just make the guys in the tank more determined to kill them. So, yeah, Michael and Ryan were playing nice.

Geoff let out one shot right near the guy’s head and eventually he got the idea that maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to be outside the tank. Michael and Ryan got their explosives ready, still managing to avoid being hit by any bullets -thank god- but they only had seconds to act.

When the tank entrance opened, Michael and Ryan were already throwing their first bombs. Geoff swore, realising they both wouldn’t make their targets, and their window would close before Michael and Ryan could fire off another explosive.

The window of opportunity was closing. But Geoff couldn’t, he wouldn’t, let it close. He had already lit the molotov when Michael and Ryan were close to letting go of their first explosives.

Now, Geoff wasn’t much of a believer in anything. After all, it became a little hard to believe in something that was meant to protect the Earth when the world ended up being overrun by the infection that killed pretty much most of the population. Still, he prayed to every God or Goddess he could think of in that single moment, the molotov leaving his hands and he could now only hope, could only pray, that it was the perfect shot.

It arched into the air, seeming to go in slow motion as the fiery explosive twisted and turned, the cloth that he had ignited slowly burning up. He watched as it just nicked the rim of the opening, before dropping in.

The overwhelming relief and disbelief that it had somehow gotten into the tank was pretty quickly burned away when the tank exploded, the strong outer shell of it quickly melting into itself as the vehicle caught alight.

They had been just far away enough to escape any shrapnel or flying pieces of vehicle, thankfully. Michael was laughing, a hysterical, mad-man laughter that soon had Ryan joining in, and even then Geoff couldn’t stop himself from letting the laughter break free. He was pretty sure that to anyone else they may have looked delirious and probably belonged in a mental asylum, but then Geoff realised there was barely anyone left in the world to really find three men laughing over an exploding tank really anything weird, which only just made him laugh harder.

Eventually, they got themselves back under control, however Michael was still pretty excitable over the whole thing. Even when Geoff and Ryan decided to wait around a little to see if anyone else was following them, Michael was still pretty intoxicated from having won the battle with the tank and it didn’t seem to bother him too much for the moment.  
But then, his behaviour started changing.

Geoff picked up on the way that his grin was soon replaced with a nervous sort of twitch, his foot rapidly tapping or randomly kicking a piece of gravel in the road. He had stuffed his hands into his pockets and had, all of a sudden, gone pretty silent.

Ryan was patrolling around the shopping center, so it left Geoff alone to investigate what was up with Michael.

“What’s up, buddy?” Geoff asked, leaning casually against the shed that Michael was also leaning on.

“Ah, sorry, I’m just worried about the others. I mean, they got away from the tank and all, but what if there’s other things out there and Ray is still in those crutches-” Michael began, his hands coming out of his pockets to wring in front of him.

Geoff cut him off, “Michael, are you saying that Jack and Gav couldn’t handle it? Hell, even Ray?”

Michael was quick to shake his head, “no, no, not at all. It’s just… worry, I guess, which is pretty fucking dumb of me. I mean, they have one of the most feared people in this country in their group, and Jack and Gavin are pretty much just as deadly. Then again, Gavin is pretty fucking stupid sometimes. What if they got caught or something, Geoff? Shot? I can’t help but worry about those three fucking morons.”

Geoff gave a contemplative ‘hmm’ in response as he thought about it. Sure, he was worried as well, but now that Michael had given him the ideas of them being caught or shot… it sent Geoff’s blood cold. Sure, he definitely cared about his… what were they? Teammates? Deadly assassin group that somehow got together? Maybe a boy band. But, really, the more appropriate term was probably friends. Some of his only friends in the world that he didn’t want to be split up from were now out of his reach and he could only hope that Ray and Ryan knew the meeting spot.

Gavin, the British kid that he had teamed up with to save themselves against Infected after almost killing each other, was definitely enough of a worry. The kid was smart when he wanted to be, but sometimes he made the dumbest mistakes. Like stepping on a twig, or turning the wrong way despite Geoff desperately yelling at him to fucking keep running, you idiot, the stairs are at the next fucking turn! Naturally, the kid hadn’t listened. And then he developed a worrying cough, nothing that was like an Infected symptom, but it still made Geoff worry each time he heard it. But Gavin had been the biggest source of amusement, a constant laugh on the long walks, a nice thing to ground himself with, to remember that he needed to protect others as well. Now the kid was out of his reach, walking along with one injured member, hopefully not getting his ass killed or something.

And then there was Jack, with his smiles that warmed Geoff up no matter how cold he was with calming and soothing words that stopped Geoff from lashing out at anyone or anything around him. He knew that with some more time, Jack would probably become the biggest anchor of them all, the one keeping them all tied to reality, to each other. If they lost him, Geoff knew, the group would have no chance of staying together.

Ray was definitely something else- someone special, for sure. Despite the scary ghost stories about him, the kid had a heart of gold. While it wasn’t innocent or pure or whatever, it was still bright enough to shine, still bright enough to attract Geoff’s attention. He found himself drawn to Ray, with his sly remarks and cheeky grin.

To have the three of them missing definitely left an unsettling hole in Geoff’s chest. He then began to wish for Ryan to hurry it up, because he was now stupidly paranoid about his other boys (thanks for that, Michael), and he needed to see them, make sure they weren’t kidnapped or killed or whatever else.

Geoff then began to realise that maybe ‘friends’ really no longer described the five men he had teamed up with. Even in the short time of knowing them, he still seemed closer to them than he had with any other relationship, like he had known the guys all his life.

‘ _Stop being so fucking cheesy_ ,’ he told himself, ‘ _or I’m going to fucking vomit rainbows, I swear to god._ ’

That shut his gay thoughts up for a while. When Ryan did return, he picked up on the melancholic behaviour of Geoff and Michael pretty quickly, thankfully suggesting they move out quickly to cover as much ground as they could before it got dark.

Ryan knew the general way, he told them. Said he hadn’t gone down these streets or these suburbs, but he knew the general direction, which was good enough for Geoff and Michael.

They continued on until it just simply got too dark to see, and the risk of torchlights wasn’t worth it. Besides, Geoff reasoned with the other two, the others would’ve stopped by now. They could catch up tomorrow at the quarantine zone.

Geoff was plagued by nightmares of watching Ryan, Ray and Gavin die horrible deaths at the hands of hunters. He was pretty sure the other two with him hadn’t gotten any better dreams, and they set off with a sort of determination. They would not see those dreams. They would see their boys, alive and well.

Even if Ryan didn’t have an idea of where to go, they began to pick up on the signs that directed them to the quarantine zone. Some had been graffitied over, others pushed and knocked down, but it still gave them their direction.

The sun was hot and blistering and unrelenting as it beamed down on top of them. It was just a few hours past midday as far as Geoff could tell, and he wondered if he’d melt before he’d even get to the zone. He was sweating profusely and he was pretty sure his shirt was drenched, and he cursed his body for wasting so much water.

Michael was back to complaining, but Geoff didn’t bother quieting him down. The quietness was too unnerving, too unsettling, so hearing Michael complain was pretty much welcomed. Ryan had then turned the tides on Michael, all of them knowing by now about Michael’s ridiculous pick-up lines.

“What is it Michael? You look a little… hot and bothered. Is it me? Would you like me to walk away?” Ryan teased, grinning cheekily when Michael gave him a disbelieving look. He obviously wasn’t expecting the pick-up line, and probably hadn’t even thought of it amongst all the complaining.

“Sorry Ryan, I don’t think such bright stars like yourself can walk away,” Michael replied and Geoff groaned in exasperation.

“That was fucking terrible, Michael, what the hell were you even thinking?” Geoff asked, turning his head a little to look at Michael next to him.

“I’m not! I’m not even thinking, I swear to god. It’s too fucking hot out here and my brain is fucking melting, alright?” Michael threw his hands up, giving Geoff a wonderful view of the sweat patches under his arms.

“Shh. Shh, shut up.” Ryan harshly muttered, suddenly bending over into a sort of crouch as they approached a fence.

“What is it?” Michael asked quietly, and Ryan looked at him, gesturing for him to crouch. They were on the outside of a fence, which seemed to just have materialised in front of them in the bushland they were making their way across.

“I barely realised, we just hit the zone. This is the exact same fence. We’re on the other side of it and we gotta walk around for a bit to hit the main area of the zone where Ray and I met, but we’re here. Be careful, though.” Ryan told them, moving along the fence line with Michael and Geoff right behind.

Geoff began to feel… odd. His stomach was beginning to twist into knots, and his throat was tightening a little. And he knew, he knew that something wasn’t right. They still kept following the fence line, but the thought of something happening like in his dreams to the other three seemed to make his footsteps heavier, like he was being weighed down by something.

He began to notice it on Ryan and Michael, who were staring ahead with a cold sort of gaze. They felt it too, they knew it. They knew there was something wrong.

When Ryan stopped them at a certain area, right behind a building, he was frowning. “There’s no movement, nothing. We would’ve seen our boys by now, right?”

Michael and Geoff nodded at that. “Right, meaning they’re either not here or they’re hiding from someone or something in the area. Or that something is hiding them.”

“Thanks for the pleasant and happy thoughts, Ryan,” Michael mumbled, pulling out his shotgun and keeping it in his grip. Geoff wasn’t sure when he had grabbed his gun, maybe a few hundred meters back or so, but it was clasped firmly in his grasp.

“We’re looking around. Together. Now, we just gotta figure a way through the fence,” Ryan said, immediately looking up to see if there was something they could use.

“We could just use the front gates,” Michael suggested, “I mean, who expects that? Not me, that’s for sure. We walk in, blow up anyone we don’t like, and get our boys, wherever they are. Got it? Great.”

Geoff began to question just how good the front gate idea was as soon as he saw it. It was small and narrow, but still convenient enough to easily place hidden bombs and wired explosives. Which, of course, someone had. They could just see a hint of the wiring, and if they weren't expecting it and looking for it, they certainly would have been blow up.

“Watch this,” Michael said, going to pick up a rock. He threw it as harshly as he could through the front gates, all of them watching as the first explosion was triggered, triggering the next and the next and even the one after that. Clearly, the guys who had rigged it weren’t that clever if they rigged so many close together. The first explosion would've killed anyone, and the second would have gotten anyone that was lucky. The third was completely unnecessary, meaning the guys that had rigged it didn't really know what they were doing. He knew it wasn't his boys, at least.  
His were much more clever.

They stepped through the gates once the smoke cleared, no one immediately shooting at them, so Geoff assumed that the area was clear for now. Ryan signalled to check out the closest building, finding it empty, so he signalled the next with the same results, and the next, which also pulled out nothing.

Ryan then stopped, surveying the surroundings before coming to a realisation. He whispered something, too soft for Michael or Geoff to catch, and before they knew it they were running to another building, one with two old corpses lying outside the front of it and they headed up the stairs as quick as they could.

They eventually stopped on the almost-top floor of the apartment complex, Ryan crouching over to a door near the end of the hallway. He opened it slightly, Geoff getting a look in and frowning once he saw what was inside. Ryan made a move to step in, and Geoff caught the movement of light just behind the door and before he knew it he was pushing Ryan aside to tackle the attacker that was behind the door.

He heard the gunshots, ones from across the room, and he heard the returned shots from his own boys. However, he couldn’t do much -just hoped he wouldn’t be shot- as his attention was focused onto the guy he was wrestling with who was now trying to stab Geoff with his machete.

They wrestled for a bit, Geoff determined to keep the blade of the machete well away from him. He managed to eventually kick it away from the guy, going for a choke hold and waiting until the man was unconscious before dropping him to the floor. Michael and Ryan had dealt with the other shooters, however Geoff had no doubt there were more guys waiting for them.

However, these Hunters were inexperienced. The attacker behind the door lacked in all fighting abilities and his swings with the machetes were wild, desperate, not at all someone who knew what the fuck they were doing with the blade. The shooters also had the advantage at the beginning, but they had wasted it and were now dead.

Geoff, Michael and Ryan quickly hurried over to the other three who were bound in all sorts of different ways. Geoff made his way over to Gavin, lightly slapping his cheek when Gavin didn’t seem to even realise Geoff was there. He looked like he was staring off into something distant and immediately Geoff was worried.

Gavin came around a bit more after Geoff started working on the bindings around his wrist that kept him tied to the crappy chair beneath him. Geoff wasn’t paying attention to the others in the room, only listening out to see if Gavin would eventually give some sort of sign he was beginning to focus.

Just when Geoff had cut through the last of the rope with his pocket knife, Gavin turned his head slightly, looking at Geoff and mumbling his name in a way that sounded more like “Eff”. Geoff just nodded, grabbing Gavin’s arms and hauling him up.

Ryan walked over with Jack, Geoff noticing the way Jack was holding his arm, the way the blood trickled between his fingers and he was frowning, going to look over it, but Jack stopped him with a shake to the head. When Geoff got a closer look at Jack’s face he could see that his eyes were watery, like he was on the brink of crying.

Before Geoff could question him about it, Jack cut him off. “Gav copped a wallop to the back of the head. He tried fighting against them and they slammed him against the wall. His head hit it pretty hard, I’m pretty sure he’s slightly concussed. A little out of it, at least.” Jack told him and Geoff turned back to Gavin, rolling his eyes slightly when he saw the other swaying slightly on the spot, looking at Geoff with confusion.

“What’s going on?” Gavin asked, frowning when Geoff stepped closer, grabbing him by the shoulders to steady him.  
Geoff just smiled slightly. “You idiots got yourselves kidnapped. So we had to save your damsel-in-distress asses. You’re welcome.”

Gavin then seemed to take notice of something behind Geoff and his eyes widened, and Geoff turned to see that Michael was sitting down with Ray, who had been tied to a shaft that ran up the wall. However, the two were awfully close, and they seemed to be staring at each other, having their own silent conversation, before Michael was leaning in.

Geoff couldn’t believe it. The two fuckers were kissing.

Sure, they definitely had some sort of connection that everyone could pretty much feel, could see the way how Michael would brighten up and the way Ray wouldn’t look like he was carrying such a huge burden on his shoulders when they were around each other.

Honestly, it was about damn time.

Geoff turned to give them a bit more privacy, slapping Gavin lightly upside the head -being mindful of his injury, of course- to get him to stop so blatantly staring. Geoff did get a glimpse though, turning to see Ray pull back and say something that earned him a punch to the arm from Michael.

After a few minutes, when Ray was off the floor and his lips were slightly swollen, he came over to Geoff who was looking over Gavin’s head. He could definitely feel the bump and he got Gavin to do some simple tests (how many fingers was he holding up? Just the one, of course, right in the middle). Ray had beckoned Geoff over to a corner, his tone quiet and worried, which was weird for someone who had probably just got to kiss their big crush.

“The Hunters mentioned something, something about slaughtering a group that walked through. They.. They mentioned children, Geoff. Young children. And… Jack.. oh god, Geoff, the look on Jack’s face. I think it was his community.” Ray mumbled, and Geoff instantly felt the colour drain from his face, the shock of it becoming very quickly overwhelming.

Geoff just nodded at Ray, who took that as his cue to leave. Geoff then grabbed Ryan and pulled him away from the group.  
Ryan had one eyebrow raised in question, waiting for Geoff to speak.

“You’ve grown well with Jack, right? Try and cheer him up a little, I guess. We’ll look around, see if we can find any evidence of his community.” Geoff told him, Ryan just giving him an odd look but nodded.

“Michael, Ray,” Geoff whirled to them, “you’re on patrol. If any Hunters are around, you make sure they’re not for much longer. Also, no making out.”  
Ray and Michael rolled their eyes and mumbled some things under their breaths, but walked away to do the job.

“Gav, you’re with me, Jack and Ryan. We’re going to look to see if we can find anything about your community. For all we know, Jack, they were bluffing. Saying it to rile you up.” Geoff said, watching as Jack just nodded slowly.

Geoff set out, dragging Gavin along with him. Wherever Ray and Michael went, Geoff and the others would check the other way, into the other buildings. If Jack’s community was here, dead or alive, he knew the man just needed some closure on what happened to them.

Ryan and Jack weren’t far behind, speaking in hushed tones. Geoff was still holding Gavin’s wrist, who had managed to slip it into basically holding hands. Geoff was going to make a joke about it, maybe calling them some sort of fairy skipping duo or some shit, but he saw the way that Gavin looked… nervous. He was nervous about the way Geoff would react to it.

Really, Geoff didn’t mind. He could still feel the man shaking slightly, from adrenaline or fear, but he wasn’t sure which. Maybe both. So he said nothing about it, instead just choosing to focus on looking through the next building. Jack and Ryan went to the next one.

The first thing that hit Geoff was the smell. How the fuck he hadn’t smelled it out on the street he wasn’t too sure, because the smell of something rotting was the first thing to infiltrate his senses. Gavin had taken his hand back in favour of using it to cover his mouth as he retched from the smell.

Geoff told Gavin to wait as he went down to inspect the smell. It was a smell that sort of always lingered in the air- you could always smell it, but it had just become so normal now Geoff didn’t even notice when the smell came in- but it was just so overwhelming and powerful there was no way he could miss it.

He followed the stench of it until he reached a small room down a hall and only got to open the door a crack before he was pulling it closed again, gagging. It was the smell of death.

He wasn’t sure of how to break the news to Jack.

When he approached the man, his shoulders hunched and the apology on his lips, Jack had just taken one look before instructing Geoff to take him to them. Geoff tried arguing- it was better if he didn’t, it was better not to see it-, but Jack wouldn’t listen.

When Jack took a look inside the door, he paused, a deep, shaky breath being taken before he was shutting it again, a hand going to his face to press at his eyelids to try and stop the oncoming tears.

It was his community. His community that he had grown with, had mingled with, had made himself at home with. And they were all dead, being carelessly tossed into a small space without a single care.

His heart ached for Jack, and when Ryan came, Geoff left the two. Geoff was never really good at consolation, but it seemed Ryan had a knack for it, even if the guy could be pretty fucking creepy.

The rest of them had grouped together in the middle of the town. Ray and Michael had taken down another four men silently, and they had gone to deal with the one that Geoff had left unconscious. If they needed a place to crash, this was unfortunately their only option, which Geoff resented. He knew Jack wouldn’t like to be sleeping anywhere near the place, much less in it.

The heavy air got to all of them, even the bright and happy moods of Ray and Michael being sapped by the melancholy in the air. Gavin stuck a little closer to Geoff when he told them the news about Jack and his community and all of them just sort of sadly walked around after that, unsure if they should approach Jack about it.

Geoff didn’t miss the way that Ray and Michael would try and cheer each other up, but it didn’t really work. When night fell, they all stayed in the same room, dragging mattresses and spreaded them across the floor. None of them wanted to be alone that night.

They had all sort of squashed together without realising it, despite the six different mattresses being laid out for all of t.hem Geoff was pressed up against Gavin with Jack at his back, who was facing Ryan on the end. Ray was next to Gavin, entwined with Michael on the other end.

Geoff wasn’t really sure why he did it, but just before he was pulled into sleep from exhaustion, he kissed the top of Gavin’s head. When he woke up, he didn’t even remember doing it. But Gavin sure did. When Gavin questioned him about it the next morning, Geoff just shrugged it off, saying he was ‘sleep-kissing, the exact same as sleep-walking, but gayer.’

They had a light breakfast, none of them really feeling all that hungry. They stomached it as best they could, but it felt heavy and dry going down their throats and made them ill in their stomachs. The bad mood was really bringing down all of them.

They all sat in a circle near the mid morning, planning on where to go and just having a general plan. Geoff and Gavin had simply just been heading into Austin to get more supplies, dragging Ryan along with them, and Jack had found his community with Michael and Ray.

Now that three of them had fulfilled their purpose, Geoff wondered if they’d hang around. Michael and Ray would stay together, he was sure, and he wasn’t sure if Jack would stay now. Michael and Ray would probably follow him.

However, he didn’t miss the way how Jack and Ryan had grown closer, how they definitely shared those certain moments that made Geoff wonder if they had already kissed or what. Ray, Michael and Gavin had also formed a good relationship, so he hoped that would keep Ray and Michael with them. He didn’t want to lose any of them.

Geoff had eventually asked the question that everyone seemed to be thinking of.

“Jack, are you staying with us?” Geoff asked, looking at the man who was staring down at the floor, a hand covering his mouth as he thought.

“Where are you going?” Jack asked, looking at each of them.

“Further. Further into Austin. We can take control of a zone, we can get anything we want. We’ve got the fucking Ray of Darkness, Ryan the fucking mad man, Mogar, Legolas, me- who is apparently too cool to have a nickname- and hopefully you, Jack. If we work together, nothing can stop us.” Geoff told him, Jack’s hand moving from his face to reveal a bitter smile.

“We’ll need a name,” Jack mumbled, and Geoff couldn’t help the relieved grin spreading over his face. It sounded like Jack was, hopefully, staying with them.

All of them began to shout names, challenging each other to the better name.  
Then Geoff got hit with the name so clearly in his mind he had no doubt that it was a perfect name.

“Achievement Hunter.” Geoff announced, the grin still remaining in place, although he was greeted by five other very confused looks.

“Nah, that’s gay,” Ray mumbled, and Michael elbowed him.  
“In case you didn’t notice, we are all just that.” Michael told him, and Ray laughed.  
“Team Gay, then?” Ray asked cheekily and Michael just rolled his eyes.

“Achievement Hunter it is.” Jack said, nodding at Geoff who smiled back at him. Yeah, the Achievement Hunters. For some reason, it just seemed to fit.

They decided to leave the town they were in, leaving it in the dust and setting out to Austin. Geoff had thought of one idea, and just before they set out to leave, he looked around for some gasoline.

He had found two containers of it and carried them into the building with the overwhelming smell of death. He opened the door, holding his breath as he threw the gasoline over the bodies.

At one point, Jack had stepped up behind him. When Geoff had turned, Jack had just looked so sad, so broken, but he pulled a packet of matches out of his pocket and Geoff just nodded, stepping away as Jack lit one, throwing it onto the pile.

As the bodies burned, they walked away. All six of them walked as a group- strong, confident, but something was definitely broken within each of them, and it made Geoff sad thinking about it. He wasn’t the only one, it seemed.

“So, the six fuck-ups band together. I mean, one of us blows shit up and another sets fire to shit, another two of us are probably the two most feared men in this fucking country, and the other two are pretty much the best dead-shots. We’re a fucked up group, you know that?” Michael said, as he walked along. He hadn’t bothered Jack for a piggy-back.

They all sort of just silently agreed on that, but Ryan seemed to be quick to drive the banter. Geoff was thankful for that. He was missing the insults that Ryan would throw at everyone every now and then.

“I dunno Michael, I think you don’t just blow shit up.” Ryan said, a mischevious sort of glint in his eyes and Geoff wondered if this was going to end with someone being hurt.

“Oh yeah, then what do I do, Ryan?”

“You blow _other_ things. Like Ray.”

All of them were sort of shocked at that. Ray just began to laugh after a few moments of silence and Michael’s mouth began to twitch upwards. Ryan was already smugly grinning. The other three were on the path to losing it, trying to hold in their laughter as best they could.

And then, Gavin said something else which just set Michael off the edge as well.

“You know, you could totally blow me.” He said, and Michael had just stared for a few seconds before doubling over in laughter.

It was nice to feel the remorseful mood lift to be replaced by their joking. He could see how Jack was straightening now- his shoulders were no longer hunched, he was no longer looking with his eyes staring down at the floor.

Slowly, they were gaining their energy again. They walked through suburbs, the quiet eeriness of it all leaving the second the six of them stepped into the street, their laughter echoing off the houses. It seemed to bring the area alive- the leaves began to rustle a bit more, the wind picked up into a gentle cool breeze and the Sun seemed to brighten.

Despite their shitty situation, despite them being stuck in the aftermath of some stupid infection that had pretty much killed most of the world, they managed to keep their spirits up. To Geoff, nothing felt better than that, so he was very thankful to the men at his side.

They had stopped in a small house, a few blocks away from an occupied quarantine zone when dusk came in. They had settled down for the night, Michael and Ray getting their own bedroom at the opposite end of the house. Sure, Geoff quite liked sleeping with all of them in in the room like the night before, but he did not want to hear Ray and Michael going at it, thank you.

Geoff had remained awake anyway, despite not hearing anything from the opposite end of the house. However, it was Ray’s turn to keep watch, and then it would be Michael’s, then his. So the two didn’t really get much time together anyway.

When someone had gotten up from the other side of the room, Geoff felt obliged to follow them. He followed behind at a safe distance, his footsteps silent as he kept watch on the person in front. He knew it was Gavin, the biggest indication being the way he nearly walked straight into a wall and a door the second he stepped out of the room.

Gavin made his way into the house’s kitchen. Ray was probably keeping watch either outside or in the attic or something. When Geoff had walked in, he saw Gavin sitting on the kitchen counter, his legs swinging back and forth slightly. When he caught sight of Geoff, he nearly fell off the counter.

“You bloody spaff, I could’ve fallen and died!” Gavin quietly lectured and Geoff just cracked a grin. He walked to stand in front of Gavin, who was still swinging his legs.

They began to play a game. Gavin would try his best to kick Geoff, who was trying to make his way to the counter to sit next to Gavin. Eventually, after Gavin nearly got him right in the manhood, Geoff had had enough.

He grabbed Gavin’s leg and just as quickly caught the other one as it went to swing at Geoff. He began to push them back under the counter, back under Gavin, keeping them trapped there.

He went to move his hands from Gavin’s legs, using his body to stop Gavin from swinging them out again. He had failed to notice just how close he was to Gavin until the man had mumbled something, something that sounded like ‘sorry about this’, and before Geoff could ask, Gavin was grabbing Geoff’s face, cupping it as he leaned it and met his own lips with Geoff’s.

Geoff had been in such a state of shock he wasn’t sure how to react for the first few moments. When Gavin began to pull back, his brain seemed to kick in again and the only thought was ‘ _no no no, this asshole is not stopping this,_ ’ and he followed Gavin, kissing back earnestly.

He was pretty sure it would probably be frowned upon in the old society to be kissing someone with such passion if he had really only known the guy for what- one week? Just over, maybe? But then he realised that he had gone through Hell, had gone back and then went back in, and he knew he was probably closer to Gavin than most people after about five years of being together.

It wasn’t just Gavin, of course, but right now it was just him and Gavin, so that was all that mattered.

Gavin was no longer pulling back, rather leaning in to the kiss. It was desperate, messy, clumsy, and honestly neither of them had any idea what they were doing. Geoff hadn’t kissed anyone in.. God, how long was it? Months? Years? But he knew that even though it was clumsy as fuck, it was still the best kiss he had ever had.

At one point, Gavin had wrapped his legs around Geoff’s hips and when Geoff noticed, he used it to his best advantage and adjusted his hands to hold Gavin up as he hoisted him up, moving somewhere across the kitchen until Gavin had been pressed up against the wall, still hooked onto Geoff around the waist.

Its was only when Geoff’s kisses had began to travel further down Gavin’s neck that they were interrupted. Gavin cleared his throat, pinching Geoff a little to get his attention. Of course, of fucking course, someone just had to fucking come in and ruin it and- Oh.

Ray stood there in the kitchen doorway, leaning against the wall with a grin and his arms folded. Even though Ray’s torch was shining upon them, Geoff could still see the tent in Ray’s pants and he couldn’t help but immediately feel smug about that.

“Oh no, don’t let me stop the show,” Ray said, his voice just an octave lower and holy fucking goddamn, these boys were definitely going to be the death of Geoff. Not the Infected, not the Hunters or the Military, nope, it was definitely these boys around him that were way too fucking cocky for their own good with stupidly charming personalities and cute looks and fuck, fuck, fuck, Geoff was so fucking fucked.

“You could always join in,” Gavin offered and seriously what the fuck, they were definitely trying to kill Geoff now.

Ray had seemed to consider it, Geoff saw the way that he had suddenly seemed to tense, seemed ready to accept the offer, but he stopped himself.

“Nah, Michael would get jealous. Probably more over the fact he would be missing out, though.” Ray shrugged, but he didn’t make any move to walk away and leave Geoff and Gavin.

Geoff eventually put Gavin down, still surprised at how light he really was. They stood there for a little, Ray keeping his torch on the two of them. Eventually, Gavin made a move to go forward and Geoff found himself following.

Gavin stopped by Ray, whispering something into his ear and Geoff swore he could see the blush rising to Ray’s cheeks and Geoff could only guess at what Gavin had said. When they began walking, Ray followed.  
“What are you doing?” Geoff asked Ray, who shrugged sheepishly.

“Michael’s on his watch. I was just going to walk back into the bedroom with you guys when I heard you two out here. Thought I’d check it out. Turns out, you two are close to banging so I decided hey, why not try and watch the show. Unfortunately, you two didn’t bang. I’m disappointed, I’m going to leave an angry review about it.” Ray explained, his voice quiet as they walked back into the main bedroom.

Geoff had laid down on the mattress, Gavin and Ray right next to him.  
Even though it was only a double mattress, they squeezed up next to each other and Geoff wondered if Michael would get jealous when he saw the three of them when he came to wake Geoff for his turn for watch. But then Michael would no doubt take Geoff’s spot, and then Geoff couldn’t help but feel a little jealous at that.

He got to sleep pretty quickly, just barely awake to register the fact that Gavin had pretty much just entangled all of their limbs.

When Michael woke him up for his shift, it was definitely hard as fuck to try and slip out of Gavin’s tangle he had made out of both of them. Michael was trying to hide his snickers as best as he could, but it was still loud enough so that when Geoff finally got out of the tangle, he had slapped Michael upside the head and called him something rude.

When he stepped out of the room, he turned his torch on. It was definitely creepy as fuck, and Geoff felt like a little kid trying to sneak around the house at around midnight, trying not to alert the parents to his presence. He couldn’t help but think of all the monsters that were probably waiting to eat his dick.

He chose to sit in the front room, where he could see out the window easily enough and there were also plenty of hiding places in case someone tried to look through the window on the other side.

The couch in the front room was old, probably handed down or something. It was dusty and had that weird sort of musky smell that a lot of furniture was now getting, but this one had probably had that scent for a long time.

He kept the torch on, more to keep himself awake than anything. He would give the boys to a few hours past sunrise- only if they slept in that long, of course. Ryan never seemed to get up later than sunrise, same with Jack, but Gavin, Ray and Michael could sleep for the whole day if they could.

He had a long time to think over things while he kept an eye out.  
Mostly, though, it revolved around kissing Gavin. He really, really wanted to try it again. No wonder Michael and Ray were always so close to making out- after so long of having barely any contact, Geoff found himself craving plenty now that it was available.

There was something else bugging him, though. Ray. He had seemed ready to get in there, taking up Gavin’s offer (and if Geoff was honest with himself, he really liked that idea) before thinking of Michael. But what had he said? That Michael would get jealous from missing out?  
Jesus christ, he wasn’t sure what to think of it.

Surely, one person was enough? Ray and Michael had each other, Geoff and Gavin had each other, and Jack and Ryan sort of just fit in wherever they wanted to. But Geoff could feel it, the way he was beginning to crave for more contact, the way he just didn’t feel complete with Gavin. When Ray seemed ready to get in, a small part of that incompletion had felt complete.

When his thoughts began to wander down to a more inappropriate topic, he forced himself to stop thinking of it before he would have to deal with something he’d rather not with the five other guys around.

When the sunrise came, Ryan came out with it. He had come up to the front room, sitting beside Geoff wordlessly as they watched the outside of the window get brighter through the blinds.

“How is he?” Geoff finally asked, worry for the other Gent gnawing at him.

Ryan’s smile was sad. “He’s… healing. He’s getting there. He’ll be back to himself soon, hopefully.” He replied, Geoff just nodding. He wondered if he should get the breakfast going. Surely, there would be a pan around somewhere. And Ryan had been carrying that gas stove thingie anyway.

Jack walked in a few minutes later, his glasses crooked and hair a bit dishevelled. He sat between the two other Gents and Geoff leaned over to fix his glasses and brush down his hair with his fingers. Jack smiled a little and Geoff found himself smiling back.

Hopefully, they’d be seeing Jack back to his usual self soon enough.

Eventually, Ryan spoke up to break the slightly awkward silence between them. “So, Michael and Ray are doing well I guess. Together, I mean.”

 _Interesting topic_ , Geoff thought.

“Crazy kids,” Jack mumbled, fondness in his voice and Ryan and Geoff just smiled at each other, relieved they had even gotten a word out of Jack.

“Yeah, so reckless these days, making out while there’s a fucking apocalypse. How irresponsible of them. I never believed in their generation.” Ryan joked, and then it seemed that any awkwardness was vaporised as the three slid into easy conversation.

“You know, the most immature one of all is actually the most ‘responsible’ in these terms,” Jack said, and Ryan just asked “Gavin?”, receiving a nod in confirmation.

Geoff could pretty much imagine just how red his cheeks were.

"You know, that's not really all that true." Geoff said, immediately questioning if it was such a good idea to tell Ryan and Jack without talking to Gavin first. However, it was out now, so Gavin could just deal with it.

Ryan and Jack turned to him, their eyes wide, then seemed to retrain their senses pretty quickly.

"When?" Jack asked Geoff, who just shrugged.

"We just kissed last night. A lot. No where R-rated though, unfortunately another kid had to walk in at that moment. Fucking Ray and his darkness bullshit, scared the shit out of me. He seemed to be enjoying the show, though." Geoff said feeling smug in the way how Ryan and Jack also got a little rosy coloured.

"We were placing bets," Ryan admitted, and now it was Geoff's turn to look at them in shock, "Jack and I knew it would happen, we didn't think it would have been last night. We said at the least a week, but apparently you two teenagers can't even win that."

"You motherfuckers," Geoff said, but there was a grin forming, "did Ray and Michael participate in the betting?"

Jack nodded while Ryan answered. "Yeah, but they thought you already had."

Geoff just laughed and shook his head. "Gav got the jump on me when he did it. Sure wasn't expecting it, that's for sure. He nearly mistook the initial shock for something like rejection and went to pull back. Of course, I couldn't let that happen."

Ryan and Jack rolled their eyes.

Geoff decided that because he had gotten the first of his worries out the way, he may as well spill on the second worry.

"Actually, back to Ray and Michael," Geoff said, "does it still feel like Michael is still trying to flirt with youse?"  
Ryan and Jack both nodded and Geoff felt relieved that it wasn't just him imagining it.  
"And the thing is," Geoff continued, "Ray doesn't mind it at all. He's fucking sharp, he has to know what Michael is doing, but still he either just doesn't care or he's... Encouraging it, in a sense."

Ryan and Jack nodded again, seeming to think about how to respond.

"I can see the way both of them look at Gav. I reckon they might try something," Jack eventually said and Geoff frowned a little at that.

"Oh please, it's obvious how they look at all of us. They're interested in all of us," Ryan said, and damn, that guy had some sharp observance skills. Geoff hadn't really thought of it, but now that it had been pointed out to him it was quite obvious when he thought back on their behaviour.  
But Jack and Ryan didn't seem to be that interested in it. While Geoff had his suspicions the two were interested in each other, he wasn't sure if they were interested in the rest of them.

Geoff would be lying if he said he didn't feel disappointed at that.

"God, these kids are so much trouble, aren't they?" Ryan mused and Geoff hummed in agreement.  
"But Ryan, they're our kids." Jack joked. He yawned and stretched and Geoff wondered how far away they'd have to be from the zone before Jack could get some sleep. But Geoff knew that distance didn't matter, because it would always haunt Jack.

The silence after that was comfortable and easy, and eventually Geoff got up to get the breakfast ready. They had to be a bit more conservative, and if there was anything in the kitchen of the house he would use that instead.

There was, thankfully, some food that hadn't gone out of date and he laid that out. It was dry fruit, so nothing that needed cooking, so he just laid it out on the table and took a dried apricot to eat while he walked back to Ryan and Jack.

It seemed Geoff had been right of his suspicions of the two. When Geoff had walked in, he caught them right in the act of making out.

And damn, he couldn't really feel smug about giving Ray the tent in his pants anymore, because holy shit, watching the two other men kiss was seriously hot. They were just sitting on the couch and were leaning towards each other for the kiss, Jack's hands on Ryan's chest. The gentle hold turned into a grip, Jack bunching up the shirt in his hands as Ryan adjusted his angle a little better.

When Ryan had opened his eyes, he saw Geoff, and the fucker seemed to smirk before going right back at it with Jack. Eventually Jack pulled back, turning to see Geoff and Geoff couldn't help but smile a little at seeing Jack's swollen lips and flushed cheeks.

Jack just smiled sheepishly and shrugged and Geoff rolled his eyes and gestured for them to get into the kitchen for the dried fruit. God fucking damnit, these boys would definitely be the death of him.

Geoff went to go wake the other three boys, seeing the three of them tangled all together. He patted at Michael's face to bring him around. Ray was waking up already, trying to untangle himself from the other two. Of course, though, he wasn't as gentle with Gavin. He did the typical wake up call, laughing hysterically when Gavin began to gag and retch and throw himself out of the tangle of limbs to gag in the corner.

Michael was laughing as well, Ray soon joining in when he realised what had happened. Eventually they all got out of the room and into the kitchen, Gavin taking in the flustered state of both men at the table. He then took a look at Geoff and grinned cheekily and Geoff knew that the fucker knew Geoff had pulled a Ray, walking in on the two making out and enjoying the show.

Geoff avoided Gavin's looks from there. They all sort of seemed to figure out what had happened between Jack and Ryan, but none of them really wanted to bring it up. After all, Jack was still pretty shaken, and they all sort of silently agreed that they wouldn't take the piss out of Jack actually feeling alright.

They began walking again, Geoff giving Ray and Gavin some of his own water. Ray seemed to go through the bottles pretty quickly (he really had a thing for water, it seemed). Gavin just drank them to clear up the cough that was now definitely fading, much to his relief.

It only took them half the day to reach the main city. The quarantine zone was still standing, still occupied, and Geoff knew that without passes they would probably be shot on the spot. So they'd have to either sneak in, but judging by the size of the zone it was probably guarded very well so that would make it very difficult. They could make fake passes, but Geoff didn't have the same ties he used to and it would take time to get them made.

All they needed was supplies. Some food, water, ammunition, and they could walk free of the place and make up their own journey, leading them to fuck-knows-where. Staying in a zone was dangerous, after all, because if someone recognised him they would be gunned down immediately. Ryan would be alright if he took off his mask, no one really knew what Ray looked like, same with Jack and Michael. Gavin wasn't known to really exist, although his English accent could draw some attention. However, Geoff was pretty unmistakable with the tattoos running down his arms and hands and his scruff.

So hiding in the zone was probably not a great shot. They really just needed to grab some supplies and get out, then survive by doing the same to more zones. Geoff knew, from his time in the Military, that the patrol would expand for an hour, looking past the borders to check for any stragglers, and would then drop to the skeleton crew by the next hour if nothing arose. That would be their best time to hit.

He told the group so, telling them to head back about a kilometre to make sure they weren't spotted by the patrol. There was a small house just on the outside of the suburb and they decided to camp there. It was falling apart- the doors were coming off the frames, the wooden panels were stripping off themselves and the whole place really was more of an old shack than anything.

They settled down and waited, Geoff keeping an eye on the time by the position of the Sun. They had a long while to go, but still Geoff kept an eye on it.

At one point, Gavin and Ryan began bickering, Ray stood up and walked out of the room and Michael yelled at both of them to shut the absolute fuck up. Jack was laughing, clearly amused by the whole situation.

Ray came in to join Geoff in the front of the shack, sitting next to Geoff on the floor and leaning against the front door. He sighed, and Geoff gave him a questioning look.

“If they weren’t so fucking cute, I would’ve slit both their throats or tongues by now. Seriously, how the fuck can they argue about flipping a fucking coin? Money doesn’t even have fucking value any more, I swear to god.” Ray rambled, a hand going through his hair and tugging a bit at it.

“Cute? How the fuck is Ryan, the skeleton fucking madman, cute?” Geoff asked, glancing at Ray who just shrugged and left the topic.

“You know,” Ray eventually spoke up, “Michael and I really were really considering adding Jack or Gavin to our relationship, because they seemed a bit more easier to read on the subject and seemed okay with it. If that worked, we'd try for you and Ryan. Of course we’d test the waters and shit to see if they wanted in, but then Gavin ended up kissing you and then Jack was kissing Ryan and I’ve guess we’ve all sort of split into our couples.”

“But you don’t want just couples,” Geoff said, watching Ray carefully who was looking back at Geoff with an unreadable expression.

“No, I guess not,” Ray finally answered, “and I know Michael isn’t too keen. He was pretty disappointed when he found out you were with Gav and Ry and Jack were together.”

It was silent for a few minutes.

“You know,” Geoff said, staring out beyond the patio and watching the sky, watching as the Sun began to set. “I was thinking about it. I.. I wouldn’t be against trying anything, I suppose. I think Gavin’s the same, to be honest. But Ryan and Jack…” Geoff shook his head a little, “I don’t know, they didn’t seem to keen.”

Ray managed to look hopeful and disappointed at the same time. Then a playful sort of expression crossed his face and before Geoff could ask about it, Ray was already explaining.

“That’s what Michael’s doing now, actually. He’s testing the waters with Gav. I wonder if they’re banging.” Ray said and Geoff couldn’t help but feel a little jealous at that last part. He followed Ray back inside, who began to investigate around the shack for the couple.

And yep, Ray and Geoff should create a team called the fucking Peeping Toms or something. It seemed both had a knack for walking in on two couples in the midst of a passionate session.

Geoff knew he should be jealous. Angry. Something like that. But he definitely felt none of those, and the confusion of that stopped him from stepping forward with Ray who just went right between them, breaking them apart and pointing at Geoff.

Gavin gave him a stupid fucking goofy smile, and Geoff knew he was doomed.

“You assholes starting without me?” He said, voice strong and steady, much unlike his knees that he was sure would collapse from him as he began walking forward.

Seriously, what the fuck is happening?

“Of course not, but Gav here was just too wound up from fighting with Ryan about the coin or some fucking shit. So I decided to be a stress reliever,” Michael said, his hair a bit dishevelled more than usual and yep, his lips were definitely swollen.

 _Do I even give a fuck that this is probably wrong and weird_?

Ray approached him then, a devilish smile on his lips and oh, oh Geoff was so fucked at this point he may as well just go dig his own fucking grave now.

_No, not at all._

Ray grinned before grabbing his shirt and the two of them were kissing. It wasn’t as desperate and messy as his and Gav’s, it was more of a fight for dominance, seeing who would end up on top. Geoff was a leader, he was their leader, but fucking damn Ray could hold his own. Of course he could, he was one of the most feared men in the damn country, and of course he knew just how to kiss just as well as he killed.

They had stumbled their way over to a wall, Geoff’s back hitting the wall and they continued before Michael eventually parted them by dragging Ray away. Geoff knew he probably looked like a bit of a mess- his shirt was scrunched more than usual, his hair was definitely dishevelled and he was pretty sure he looked to be in about the same state as all of them in the room.

Michael then grinned, saying “my turn” before he was pouncing onto Geoff, who grabbed Michael’s hips and pulled him in quickly, the both of them slamming against each other.

Michael submitted a little easier, the fight for dominance soon in Geoff’s favour as he managed to turn them to have Michael against the wall, his hands cupping Geoff’s cheeks to bring him closer somehow.

They had exchanged partners again, Geoff grinning and Gavin before the latter was leaping into Geoff’s arms and he was raising him up, kissing him just as passionately and as desperately as the night before.  
Somewhere along the line, all their shirts had been thrown to the side, but the pants stayed on. He knew what it was, he was sure all of them did. It just didn’t feel… right. It didn’t feel complete.  
He knew how to fix it, of course, but he knew it would be quite the issue bringing them in.

Forcing himself to think back to the men he was now with, all of them focusing their attention onto Ray for a few moments, Geoff working on playfully biting and sucking at Ray’s neck and shoulders.

They had parted when Geoff eventually realised it was quite well into the night now, and they’d have to start getting ready for their raid on the quarantine zone.

They fixed themselves up a little more, meeting with Ryan and Jack who were in the same state as the rest of them, but none of them said anything about it. Instead, Geoff decided to give out the pairs and teams they would split into.

“Ray and Gavin, you’re together. You’re not going in, you’re going to find a high point to snipe from so that you can take out any trouble if it arises. Gavin, you’d be more ideal for taking down people without others noticing. Ray, you’re only for emergency. Ryan and I are working on grabbing the rations and food, Michael and Jack, you’re going for the ammunition. I’ll point it out to you when we get near it. Questions? No, okay, great, let’s fucking roll.”

* * *

(MICHAEL)  
  
They had set off, managing to climb over the fence easily enough and avoiding the patrol. Ray and Gavin decided they could still go inside, they’d just find a building or a tree or something to snipe from. Geoff hand signalled the rest of them into their directions.

Michael couldn’t help but think it was some sort of cheesy spy movie, ducking behind every cover possible and crouching slightly in that sneaky way that was definitely suspicious as fuck.  
Then again, anyone after curfew was shot on sight, and they were definitely well past the curfew now. So they had a right to be sneaky and suspicious.

Michael followed Jack as they snuck their way past patrols, heading into a small building through a small door on the side of the building. They entered it, both of them crouching and moving along slowly as they made their way down the building’s back end.  
Jack whispered for him to check behind doors for the weapons and Michael did so, peeking carefully into each door to try and see if the ammunition was there.

It wasn’t, not until the last door, where Michael had opened it so slowly with Jack right behind him. He turned the torch on carefully, seeing the shelves lined with ammunition and Michael was unzipping his backpack, throwing in all sorts of different bullets and hoping they fit his boy’s guns.

They heard muffled shooting and an alarm and instantly Jack was grabbing Michael’s wrist, sprinting with him down the hall and just barely escaping the patrol that walked in. They escaped through the back door, seeing the patrol all aiming and shooting at something just a little past Michael’s vision.

Jack kept held of his wrist and they ran to the fence, Jack boosting Michael over who helped Jack up in turn. They managed to get out with little trouble, now trying to find the rest of the boys. Jack grabbed his attention and pointed at a tree on the other side of the fence and Michael just barely saw the glistening of a gun in the moonlight in the branches of the thickly foliaged tree.

They walked around as far as they dared, trying to get to Ray and Gavin’s side. Then there was a huge explosion and Geoff looked as people seemed to go flying above the fence and Geoff knew it was one of Ryan’s modified explosions.

Michael and Jack waited, having nothing better to do. Michael wasn’t keen on climbing a tree, neither was Jack, so they chilled at the bottom of the bark, unable to shoot through the fence and help. Ray’s crutches were also resting on the tree trunk, and Michael realised that if Ray was climbing a tree, he probably wouldn’t be needing the crutches for much longer. His leg was healing a lot better now, thankfully.

Michael decided to strike up his attempt at conversation. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t really have a filter and was already going off being realising just what he was talking about.

"So, why aren't you interested with the six of us?" Michael said it without realising just what he had asked. He just lost his whole community, idiot, it's not very fucking sympathetic of you to be asking about why he won't bang you.

Jack seemed to tense, his arms folding and his lips pursing slightly. Michael was about to apologise, to say it was a stupid thing to ask, but Jack answered before Michael could say it.

"Ryan and I... We could see that all four of you would do well. I said I could see the way you looked at Ryan and I, and I thought we should give it a try as well. But Ryan didn't think so, he didn't think you all liked him, that you all distrusted him and whatever." Jack explained and Michael frowned, about to respond with something like "that's bullshit" but then Ryan and Geoff were leaping over the fence.

Geoff landed, but tripped and fell right on his face while Ryan stumbled but managed to stay on his feet. They yelled for them to run, and they did after Gavin and Ray got down from the tree and they were sprinting.

Michael could hear the clinking of tins and glass bottles in both Geoff and Ryan's backpack and Michael found himself grinning. Their first raid had been a success.

They were pursued by gunshots, snipers aiming at them and just narrowly missing. Geoff cursed, indicating for them to take shelter in the next building. It was some sort of office complex, and they moved up it quickly, trying to get as high as they could. They moved silently, just in case there were any Infected around.

"We move to the fire escape," Geoff said, following corridors and hallways and opening random doors. They knew the military would most likely have a tank, that they would probably send it after the six of them, so it would be better to move across the balconies where they were hopefully out of sight.

They could see the remains of hideouts and knew that if they were lucky, those who had camped out here before were clever and somehow got a way to manoeuvre across the buildings with planks used as platforms and bridges.

They were in luck. Geoff got them to climb the fire escape, cursing when he heard the yell of the military not to far behind. There wouldn't be too many, he was sure, but they still had guns and artillery that probably well upped on all of them.

They got to the top where there was a plank that was holding on to the ledge from their building and crossed onto the ledge from building behind theirs. If they could go through that building, they could use back routes and streets to hopefully avoid any confrontations.

Geoff tested it by putting a small amount of weight on it. It seemed sturdy enough, so with extreme wariness he slowly began to walk across the ledge, using the bricks as grips for his hands. He stopped when he got to the plank, a wooden plank approximately twenty centimetres in length and looked pretty thick.

Still, it was still deadly. One wrong foot, one strong gust of wind and they were plummeting to the floor six stories below. It was still dark, and Michael wondered if he'd be able to even see the plank. Geoff had the same thought, turning his torch on before walking across.

All of them held their breath, Michael's heart beating insanely fast with worry as Geoff placed one foot in front of the other, his hands held slightly out from his sides to help him balance a little more. Geoff made it across alright, gesturing for the next to go. While Ryan shuffled across the ledge, Geoff made his way into the window just at the end of the ledge and lifted the window up, climbing in. Ryan followed in through the window as Ray walked across. Geoff kept his torch on the panel to help them see it a little more.

After Ray, Jack went. So far, nothing had gone wrong yet. But then Michael was up next and he was shuffling along, telling himself to not look down, that he was fine, it was totally fine, he was not going to fall and split his hea- no, no, stop that.

He got to the wooden panel and hesitated, his palms increasing their sweatiness and he took the first step, holding his breath again as he crossed ever so slowly. He then heard the tank, the engine loud enough to probably be heard from a while away, and he picked up the pace. He made it across safely, thanking every star in the universe. He got to the window, holding on for dear life with his hands as he swung one leg in, then the other.

He got in, shaking only slightly, each of them grinning back at him, also clearly a little shaken. Gavin was only a few moments behind, climbing into the window with ease and they set off down the building. Silence was once again with them, but it was a comfortable sort of silence.

Michael realised that somehow, they had grown to work almost perfectly with each other as a team. Geoff had taken the lead, Jack and Ray right behind with the other three just a step or so back. They relied on Ray for the right side of them, Jack the left, and they all seemed to follow Geoff without question. They trusted Gavin for the stealth kills, they trusted Ryan to blow shit up when needed and for Michael to blast even more shit if it was needed.

Somewhere along the line, they worked together and trusted each other with barely a doubt. They trusted their lives with each of the others, and Michael couldn’t really pinpoint when it had happened. They had just… fallen in sync during the huge Infected issue in the shopping center.

_God, that seemed like months ago._

They made their way down to the ground level of the building and walked out the fire escape door into the street, ducking into a smaller one and following the twists and turns. Eventually, when Ray had nearly walked into a wall and Gavin had stumbled more than usual and even Michael was getting pretty damn exhausted, Geoff called for a rest.

They chose a small local store which used to be some sort of cafe. Michael pretty much stumbled in, going to a table and pushed three chairs together to form some sort of resting bed. At the last moment he remembered what was in his backpack and threw the ammunition onto the table beside him before placing the backpack under his head and going straight to sleep.

It was a dreamless night, thankfully. When he awoke, it was daytime, and all the Gents were up. Gavin and Ray were still sleeping, crashed in the corner and curled around each other.

Michael got up with a groan, the chairs having shifted apart slightly and his body had shifted into the most uncomfortable position possible. Jack handed him about a third of some tinned peaches and he downed them pretty quickly, being handed a full water bottle.

The raid had worked out well. The others had sorted through the ammo and rations, Jack holding the majority of the food. They had, in total, about fifteen tins of random food. A big haul, thankfully. Geoff had managed to find a map, laying it out on the counter as Gavin and Ray strolled over groggily.

“We’ll be walking for about a day before the next zone. It’s big, and… And I heard some buddies of mine might be there. I only just caught wind of it. I thought they were dead, but then again those bastards can survive anything. There’s a hydroelectric power plant somewhere out to the west of that zone, another days walk, so if we find that we might find them. I remember Burnie talking about using it to get a whole town hopefully with power.” Geoff explained, pointing to the map.

Michael had to admit, it sounded pretty fucking smart. Even if there wasn’t anyone there, they could still hopefully crash there. As long as no one else caught up to them, of course.

They set out around midday, the heat getting to Michael who began to tug at his shirt as the sweat began to become very uncomfortable. Even Gavin had resisted jumping on anyone, the heat either sapping his strength to do so or actually understanding that maybe jumping on someone in such hot weather was a really fucking bad idea.

He found himself next to Ryan at one point, his and Jack’s earlier short conversation playing through his head.

“You know, I trust you. We all do.” Michael said to Ryan quietly, who gave him a weird look, a sort of glare that Michael recognized as Ryan sort of trying to size up and judge Michael.  
“No, you don’t,” Ryan mumbled.

“Uh, yes you fucking idiot, we do. Gavin, in case you haven’t noticed, trusts you pretty much wholeheartedly. Geoff trusts you. I trust you. Jack obviously trusts you. Even Ray, who was scared shitless of confronting you again after that first time trusts you.” Michael scolded, annoyed at Ryan for trying to brush him off so easily.

“But what if-” Ryan began and Michael felt the irritation building.

“Look, if you doubt me, just ask one of the others. I don’t give a shit if you don’t want to join us because you don’t like us in that way or whatever, although that is quite disappointing, however if it’s because you don’t think you’re good enough or that you might ruin it or whatever other fucking teenage insecurities you have, just stay up a little longer for tonight.” Michael told him before increasing his step to fall in next to Ray, who gave him an odd look but Michael waved him off.

For someone so obviously intelligent, it seemed Ryan was clearly a fucking idiot when it came to emotions.

They walked for a while, avoiding streets with patrols and Infected they could hear rattling around inside buildings. Michael kept a hold of his shotgun, even though it was ridiculously hot and he was extremely bothered, although the looks he was given from the other men at different points made him feel a little better about being so sweaty.

They had made it a little further than planned and made rest in a small old house with a low fence but wide backyard. Easier for an escape, if they needed it. However, they were doing really fucking well so far.

They passed around a tin of some terrible sort of fruit and a bottle of water. Michael hoped that maybe they’d be able to pass a lake or beach and he could cool down in the water and wash to make himself feel less grimy.

Michael then realised something was missing from one of his boys. The alarm for it rung off near Ray and he inspected Ray closely, then realised what it was. Somewhere along the run, Ray had ditched the crutches. Michael thought back to when he had last seen them- under that tree, and Michael realised Ray had probably just left them there when he sprinted. Adrenaline probably kept him upright and able to stand on his leg for so long.

At one point in the night Gavin had moved to lay his head in Geoff’s lap who was lying on the couch. They both squeezed on there, claiming it for the night. The others went to find their sleeping spots, however Jack lingered at the door and then Michael realised why he was hesitating.

“All of you, get your asses in here,” Michael said loudly, each of them appearing back in the lounge room, Gavin raising his head to indicate he was listening.

“So I know the four of us are together, obviously,” Michael began, silencing Ray with a flick of the hand when he went to open his mouth and make some sort of joke, “but I think all of us know there’s something missing. Someone… Someones, really. I talked to Jack and Ryan and I hope both of you fucking worked it out because otherwise I am going to feel very awkward with what I’m about to do.”

Michael didn’t know why he did it, really. What if they really weren’t interested, what if Michael had read all the cards wrong, what if Jack ended up hurting him because of this?  
But still, he was moving forward, moving to Jack, sending him a nervous flitter of a smile before he was grabbing the man’s shirt and pulling him close, pulling him down slightly as he brought his lips to Jack’s.

Jack was warm and soft and pleasant and Michael was craving more immediately. Even though it was hot, uncomfortably so, Jack was a nice sort of warm breeze, not at all uncomfortable, even on a hot day.

Michael began to panic again when he realised Jack wasn’t kissing back, but then Jack had brought a hand to Michael’s hip and brought him closer and they were kissing passionately and holy shit, no wonder Ryan liked doing it so much.

Speaking of… Michael moved away from Jack, placing a quick kiss on his cheek before looking over at Ryan and grinning. Ryan definitely looked a little flustered.

Michael just took notice of the other boys watching carefully, ready to step in if anything wrong did happen, but they were all radiating waves of anxiety, waiting for the response of Jack and Ryan.

“Your turn,” Michael mumbled to Ryan and Ryan gave that stupid fucking smug smirk and Michael was immediately crashing his lips onto Ryan’s. Ryan was definitely not warmth and comfort like Jack, he was almost the complete opposite. He was cold, his lips were cold (and seriously, how the fuck, it was so fucking hot) but he was so perfect, making up the lack of warmth and comfort with passion and holy shit, he could only think of how perfectly both Jack and Ryan balanced each other out.

And now here Michael was, barging right between there with his usual fieriness and he was possibly about to upset the balance, he was going to fuck it all up an-

“Stop that,” Ryan threatened, his voice low as he said the words, “I can hear your thoughts panicking. Stop it. Relax, Michael.”

And then Ryan was beginning to trail down from Michael’s mouth, down to his neck and shoulders, and oh yes, Michael could definitely relax with this happening.

But then Ryan was pulling back and Michael frowned, almost pulling him back, but Ryan just gave a small smile and Michael rolled his eyes.

“So,” Ryan said, “Who’s next?”

From that point, Michael sort of lost track of what happened. Sort of like how at one point he lost track of his shirt and pants, and as did the rest of them. It was a night that gave him a whole wide range of emotions, a wide range of experiences, but Michael really couldn’t imagine a more perfect night with the five of them in the small cottage home.

Even when it reached sunrise, none of the Gents got up. Michael was up, due to being on shift, but even he didn’t wander too far from the other five. They sort of just laid together, stuck together, and it took them a while to get coaxed out of bed.

When they got out of the pile of tangled limbs, they went for a piss somewhere but Michael had already done his while on shift so he didn’t need to go. Gavin came back through the door on Jack’s back, who was trying to shake him off but eventually gave up and just admitted defeat.

They sat around, tucked into each other’s sides, eating from a new tin of nicer food. The usually had fruits for breakfast and beans for dinner or soup if they got the pan working. Michael was leaning against Ryan, who seemed to be slightly uncomfortable at first but then relaxed as well.

When they got moving again, the heat had already picked up and was burning down on all of them. The went through the water bottle quicker, starting on another one. It didn’t take long to get to the next quarantine zone, but when they got there it was abandoned. The people before had left in a rush, not leaving many supplies behind. There were a few packets of ammo and some items they could use for explosives, but not much.

They decided to keep moving until they found the hydroelectric dam. It was their best option, their only plan, and so they decided to stick with it.

It took a while to get there. Another three days, in fact, with long hot days and nights that went by way too fast. They ran into trouble with some Infected at one suburb, but they had been dealt with very quickly, and the Hunters mostly just surrendered once they spotted just exactly who was in their group. Those ones got to leave alive, but that didn’t mean they’d be moving for a while.

And then there were a few signs, a few wrong turns thanks to Gav’s horrendous map reading skills, but they made the first sign of the dam. The suburbs went to more open land, then eventually turned into forestland with tall trees and some barely readable sign.

They came across a stream and followed it, the small body of water running through the forestland, eventually getting wider and Michael could hear above all the birds and other sounds of annoying wildlife the sound of violently churning water that sounded like rapids.

They made their way up a hill, seeing the first sign of the hydroelectric dam. They crossed the bridge over the rushing water, making their way to a small office and inspecting inside it. There wasn’t anything, so they moved forward.

“There should be a gate or something apparently,” Geoff mused, taking another look at the map then decided it was useless and put it back. Michael began to walk forward, checking around a small cliff face.

“You mean this one?” Michael asked, walking back to them and pointing them in the direction he had seen it. Geoff grinned when he saw it, patting Michael’s shoulder as he stepped forward.

There was someone patrolling the top of the fence, a rifle being aimed down at them and they stopped in their tracks.

“You stop right there and you put your fucking guns down or I swear to- _Wait_. Wait a fucking second. Holy shit, _Geoff_?” The man at the top of the wall said, and Geoff laughed.

“The one and only Geoff Ramsey, here to request for your queen.” Geoff announced, mock bowing and the guy above laughed before shouting out to the rest it was a false alarm. The gate in the fence was opening and Geoff walked through, the rest following behind a little hesitantly.

“Gus!” Geoff said, greeting the man from the top of the fence who made his way down with a hug. “Holy shit man, you got fucking older.”

“Oh hah-hah Ramsey, I can see some greys in your mustache there. I can also see you have company.” Gus said, gesturing to the others.

Geoff nodded. “Yeah, picked these dickheads up off the streets and other places. You might have heard of them. Ray, Ryan, Michael, Gavin and Jack.” Geoff introduced, all of them responding in greeting as Gus stared at him in shock.

“No fucking way, you managed to get the most fucking feared outlaws in the fucking country together? You clearly have a lot to tell us. Come on, Burnie’s currently working out how to get the hydroelectric power working. We’re trying to get it up and running again.” Gus explained, leading them through a small field before they reached the main part, going through a door into a wide room with some mattresses on the other side of the room. They ignored them and passed through, passing over a wide area with a lot of bridges and empty crates.

“So how much can it power?” Jack asked, looking around with such interest and earnest.

“We can have lights, electrical sockets, appliances and even the electric fence going. We only had it once up though, for about a day, before some raiders came in and fucked something up. Been trying to get it back up since.” Gus said, then stopped in front of a door and knocked.

“Come in,” someone said from inside and Gus opened the door, ‘ahem’-ing to get Burnie’s attention who was standing around some sheets on a table.

Burnie looked up and then took in the group. Once he finally realised it was Geoff his eyes widened in disbelief and he was making his way over quickly to Geoff, enveloping him in a bear-hug.

“This your team?” Burnie asked, nodding at each of them in greeting.

“Yeah, fucking Achievement Hunter or some shit we call ourselves. We got Ray, Michael, Ryan, Jack, Gavin and I. Placings are open, I suppose.” Geoff said, a large smile still on his face. Relief flowed off both of them in waves.

“Nice to meet you guys. Heard some stories about you. I wondered if maybe the tattoo guy was you, but I was pretty sure you were dead. Then I heard about the hits on the zones and I was a bit more convinced. Nice to see you’re not dead.” Burnie said, gesturing them over to the table.

“Yeah, I guess same goes for you. I see you’ve got you’re own sort of team going.” Geoff said, looking over at the papers.

Burnie nodded. “Some local people who wanted to help. We’ve got a few who know what they’re doing, but otherwise we’re sort of just hoping for the best. You’ll see Matt and Joel around and a few others, so they’d be excited to see you I suppose. Anyway, these are the plans for the power.”

Michael had no idea what the hell the papers were on about- some formulas and measurements he had no interest in. Ryan had the most interest, even asking Burnie if he could go see the turbines himself. Burnie got someone to guide him down, some kid named Caleb, and the rest of them hung around the plans.

“You planning on staying?” Burnie asked.

Geoff tilted his head slightly and frowned. “Not too sure, actually, about that. I think we will, power sounds fucking cool as shit after all. But I don’t speak for these guys.”

They all looked at each other and then nodded. “We want to stay.” Gavin said, Burnie giving him a double take.

“English? That’s a bit odd, but we got some other English kid around as well. Still weird to hear it, though.” Burnie said.

“Michael’s from New Jersey and Ray’s from New York as well. Plenty of weird accents to go around, don’t you worry.” Jack said and Burnie laughed at that.

“Well, we best give you a room. Here, you can take this one,” Burnie told them, circling an area of the map in red pen.

Geoff thanked him, all of them did, and they made their way to the room. They all dumped their stuff in one corner, then saw the two queen mattresses on the floor.

Naturally, they pushed both the mattresses together to form one big one and Gavin and Ray were so excited by it they decided to go check out the rest of the dam and the area by themselves. Michael made a snide joke about only seeing each other for half of it, and not the area at all, but Ray rolled his eyes and they were off and out the door.

Jack had laid back with Geoff, Michael getting between them. The weather was much cooler down in the area they were in, so it was tolerable to cuddle up. They laid around, too tired to really do much else, exchanging a few random kisses here and there.

When it came to dark, they all met up out in the main room where Burnie explained the situation. If they got the power up, they could power the town just a kilometer away. However, because the power wasn’t up it was probably easier for the six of them to remain in the station until the power came back on.

They slept real close together that night, cuddled closer than ever and Michael honestly couldn’t help but marvel at just how lucky he had been.

Come morning, Ryan was quickly back down at the turbines. By speaking to some random other workers, Michael found out Ryan was actually really quickly moving their progress forward, and if they were lucky they might have the power back on by night.

The community wasn’t small. It was full of mostly young adults, all doing their own jobs and smiling nicely at Michael which made him wonder just what the hell they wanted, if they wanted Michael to go kill someone for them because they were just so nice.

Surely, they would know by now just who the five of them were? But they still smiled at him, still waved or said hello to all of them when they walked around during the day. They treated Michael with patience and Gavin with even more so, even when he started poking around at things.

Just as it hit dusk, there was a loud clang and then there was some sort of humming, some sort of buzzing and whirring, and then there was a flicker above him and the street light above him was on.

The power was on.

Michael whooped, Gavin laughed in excitement and the whole crew cheered. Ryan came out, greasy in a tank top and shorts and _wow_ if any of the boys kept their hands off him and to themselves tonight Michael would be damn impressed.

That night they spent it in the town, a house being offered to them which they gratefully took. Burnie had spoken to them of prospects of being able to watch movies if they managed to fiddle around with the power a little more, and thanks to Ryan a lot more opportunities had already arisen.

The next morning, Michael woke before any of them. For the first time, none of them were on watch. Burnie promised security and alarms if anything did arise, and Geoff trusted him so they all did to. They had made their own precautions- noise bottle alarms and other loud objects used as detectors.

As Michael laid there on the mattress, curled into Jack and Gavin, he wondered about his life.  
He thought about his childhood, his teens, the moments of when he left New Jersey for Austin. And then he got trapped in Austin with the outbreak, he remembered seeing the first case of it then telling himself that he needed to protect himself. So he taught himself how to shoot, how to make shit explode and other useful tricks.

And then he had been kidnapped and then he met Jack who saved him. Then they came across the widely-known and feared Ray of darkness, and bonded over tinned fruit. Then the shopping centre where they met Geoff, Gavin and Ryan, more big names in the feared list. And then there was Infected and Bloaters and Hunters and Military and all sorts of shit that Michael couldn’t believe had been crammed into just a few weeks.

It was exciting and dangerous and Michael loved it.

He thought back to the others, and wondered what they went through. They had each told their own story to each other. He wondered if Gavin still wanted to seek out Dan, if Ray wanted to go to New York, if Jack regretted ever getting with a community…

They had said the answers to all these as well. Gavin had said yes, that if there was some way to find Dan, he’d take it if he could. He hoped that the dam might attract Dan’s attention. Ray said no- New York was basically all Infected. He said if he wanted to see family, he’d rather not see them dead or Infected. After all, it was just too hard for the transport now. Jack said no as well. He wished he could’ve saved them, helped them, but he had to leave it behind and focus on his new life with his boys. And Ryan and Geoff? Well, they never really had any plans other than just to survive, so the whole just going-along-wherever-life-lead thing wasn’t new to them at all.

However, all of them now had settled down, seemed to have find a place to stay with a steady amount of supplies and rations and just the amount of Hunters trying for raids on the dam to keep things interesting for them. But, really, they all agreed that it didn’t matter where they were, where they are or where they were going, it really all just sort of came down to being together.

If they were together, that was as good enough a place as any, really.

He thought of all this as the Sun began to rise, as the first peaks of light shone through to light the new day ahead. A new life, really, for all of them.

He also had plenty of time to think about how to wake them up. Unpleasantly was one that came across a lot- maybe Geoff’s classic technique, maybe just activating the noise trap, maybe jumping on all of them.  
But then there was the pleasant as well, and he decided it was probably better to go with that.

So when Geoff’s eyes began to open, when Jack began to groan as he came around and Ryan just sort of sighed, Michael kissed all three in goodmorning.  
They weren’t really that unhappy about waking up after that, to say the least.

When Geoff began to make the breakfast on the stove thanks to the power now working, the smell of food woke both Ray and Gavin up, and all four of them decided to speed it up.

Now, Michael did wake them up pleasantly. A kiss each, just like the others, but well… The others weren’t so nice about it. Geoff did the typical wake up call and Ryan began to flick them in the faces, even after they had their eyes open and glaring in annoyance, and Jack started banging pots together to create a head-rattling noise.

The breakfast had cheered both Ray and Gavin up remarkably (also with a bit of kissing from the others), and so that before even midday they were running around with so much energy, so excited about the power as they ran around the town.

When Michael joined in on both Ray and Gavin’s excitement, when Ryan, Geoff and Jack had joined in too, Michael really couldn’t help but think that yeah, for someone who had survived the fucking apocalypse for someone who had done such shitty things… yeah, it definitely turned out pretty damn alright.

Just as long as he had his boys right there with him.

**Author's Note:**

> So it's been a while... Sorry :c  
> But idk I've been working on this thing and I told myself I would not hit the 50k mark and I fricken did and goddamnit I am so done with this fic. There a few italics missing, I know. Once again, currently unedited so any mistakes are totally on me.  
> Massive thanks to Jos/eight-of-hearts for the amazing help and for sparking this whole idea x  
> Feedback, kudos and whatever else are always appreciated <3 Meanwhile, I'm just glad this is now off my hands pft.


End file.
